Long Live the Queen
by SuperSailorCharon
Summary: The long-awaited sequel of Gangrene Queen! Since Angie can't go back to Townsville, Ace and the Gang decide to surprise Angie by coming to visit her in Cityville! Meanwhile, Snake falls in love with Angie's new housemaid, and Angie's parents set her up on a date with the son of a wealthy automobile tycoon causing Ace to go crazy with jealousy! Reuploaded after a hiatus.
1. A Day in the Life

**SuperSailorCharon: Sorry it's been so long! School/personal life/writer's block/randomness have all kept me from being able to update. That, and I just kinda fell out of love with the story (that's a lame excuse, I know) Due to popular demand, I'm gonna slowly reupload this story and edit out some of the stuff that pissed off the moderators. Anyway, here ya go! I do not own Powerpuff Girls or Poison by Chris Wooding or "Alive and Kicking" by Simple Minds. **

Angela's glossy brown eyes fixed on the clock as Mr. Jameson, her English teacher, droned on like the sound of the fluorescent lights in the classroom. She gnawed on her fingernails purely out of boredom.

Five torturous minutes remained of this class, which meant four more hours in this pretentious hell hole.

_If I have to hear the sound of the fluorescent lights one more time, I'm going to gnaw off my left hand,_ Angela vowed.

"Don't forget, your analysis of _Romeo and Juliet_ is due the day we reconvene from spring break," Mr. Jameson reminded the class as the bell rang, singing the praises of Angela's freedom from this dull classroom. She bounded out of the class like a wild deer and raced down the corridors of the lovely little prison she was supposed to call "school". How this place was supposed to be better than the public schools that middle-class teens attended, Angela had no idea.

It had already been a ridiculously long day. Her alarm never went off and she begged her mother to allow her to stay home. Even though she had been home for about four months, her mother still had absolutely no reasons to trust her, so she obviously said no.

_Talk about holding a grudge_, Angela thought to herself as she took her school uniform and her Mary Jane shoes out of her walk-in closet.

First was math. Normally Angela was actually pretty good at math, but lately she'd been finding it harder and harder to concentrate. In fact, she flunked her last test on factoring quadratic functions. Some days, there were just more interesting things to concern herself with. She stared out the second-story window of the stone prison, looking out in the green fields, sprinkled with dew. The first flowers of spring were slowly blooming. Everything looked to be coming alive except for this droll class. Angela wondered what it would be like to just sprout wings and soar out that window, flying through the sky towards Townsville.

Angela took out a piece of paper. While her math teacher droned on about the importance of quadratic functions as though they were a matter of life and death, Angela searched her mind for words that wouldn't come. She wanted so badly to write to Ace. She had already sent him a letter a few days ago, but she never got one back. Still, it didn't bother her that he never answered. She just felt better with the hope that whatever she wanted to say to him would flow from her brains and out of her pen onto the blank, lined paper. She had thought about asking him to call her, but with caller ID and her parents watching her every move like a couple of scavenging vultures, that was out of the question, too.

The bell rang and drowned out Angela's bored and anxious groans. She walked out of the pretentious prison down to the dance studio across the courtyard where the blossoming flowers and the warm, fresh air beckoned her to skip class for just today. Her next class was ballet, which either went very well or was an hour-long hell depending on what Gertrude, her angry German dance instructor, had planned for the class that day. She didn't mind ballet; she'd been doing it for the last few years. But she _really_ wanted to learn how to belly dance. There was a dance studio in downtown Cityville that taught belly dance, but she was afraid to ask her parents. She already knew what their answer would be. After all, they were the Fun Police.

Angela didn't mind doing routines at barre, and she was excited to be doing a lot of the routines en pointe. They often lasted for six or seven minutes at a time, and most of the time, Gertrude was too busy calling the counts in German to make any snide comments. Plus, despite the fact that she usually had a stick up her ass, Angela loved the fact that Gertrude usually picked out cool songs to do routines to.

Of course, today was not her lucky day. Much to Angela's dismay, Gertrude decided to dedicate the entire hour to doing spins.

Angela _hated_ doing spins. In fact, she hated _all_ transitions across the floor of the dance studio with the other girls in the class perpetually smirking at her from behind their hands. When all eyes were on her, Angela became vulnerable to the taunts of an unappreciative audience. She stood out like a sore thumb in her hot-pink leotard while the other prim and proper girls were clad in pastel pink. Her muscular, curveless body was on display for the taunts of the other girls. The hour dragged on slower than a snail on sleeping pills creeping through a big puddle of molasses.

After suffering dance class and barely surviving literature with her sanity intact, next was lunch. Angela detested, abhorred, and despised lunch more than any other moment in the day, even more than doing spins aimlessly across the wooden floors of the dance studio. Although her game plan during the half hour of horror was to hide out with her lunch in a stall in the second floor restroom, there was no guarantee she would be able to evade the taunts of the Barbie crowd. She disappeared past the clusters of girls in the cafeteria with their neat, tidy uniforms, their smiles more perfect than a row of mint Chiclets, and not a single flyaway hair in sight.

In the sanctuary of the second floor restroom, Angela slammed the door to the stall furthest from the mirrors and took a seat on the toilet where she produced her iPod and _Poison_ by Chris Wooding from her backpack. She began to escape in the sounds of Simple Minds' "Alive and Kicking" and the scintillating story of the contrary swamp girl when the door flew open and several pairs of Mary Jane shoes shuffled in.

Angela sat cross-legged on the toilet so as to remain unseen. When she heard the voices of these new intruders, she remained quiet but the hallways of her brain echoed in groans. She turned off her iPod and quietly shut her book.

"Oh my God, I am _so_ bad," moaned Christa Martin, the goddess of the freshmen. "I went off my diet and ate my hamburger _with_ the bun!"

"Please! I'm the one who ate your fries!" Destiny Lease, her lady-in-waiting, argued.

"What are you whining about, Christa?" Melissa Chesney asked. "You're so thin, you're practically anorexic!"

"Oh please," Christa scoffed, pretending to be offended as is socially acceptable. Angela rolled her eyes. She couldn't see Christa, but she knew there was a smile curving up on Christa's plump collagen lips. "I'm not a size zero _yet_. I'm still a size three."

"I'm totally jealous though!" Melissa said in awe. "I wish I could fit into your clothes!"

"What are you complaining about?" Destiny asked. "At least you got boobs first!"

Even an outcast prankster like Angela knew that Melissa Chesney had the reputation for having the biggest breasts in the freshman class. Paranoia suddenly struck Angela because the next words out of Christa's mouth made her wonder if her thoughts were loud enough to be heard.

"At least none of us will ever be as flat as Angela Morbucks," Christa said haughtily. "She's flatter than a day-old soda. And she's so funny to watch in dance class because her body's so masculine! I mean, you have apple-shaped, pear-shaped, hour-glass shaped, and ruler. Last I checked refrigerator box is not a body shape for women."

Angela couldn't help but grin. At least their insults were getting more creative, if not comical.

"That girl is _such_ a basket case," Melissa added in mock pity. "Her hair looks like a big, brown bush, and she seriously needs to grow up. I mean come on, saran wrapping the toilets? Tampering all the clocks in the school to run an hour fast? She _seriously_ needs to grow up. I find it hard to believe that her parents are the richest people in the city."

"Seriously, some people just don't have a clue," Destiny agreed. "She's a total social failure."

Angela knew the endless dialogues of the Barbie crowd by heart, how they'd bemuse the fact that she was the daughter of the city's richest couple while rehashing every prank she had ever played on various students and staff members in disgust. But today, a strange new sensation overcame Angela that she'd never felt before.

"Ooh!" Christa squealed. "Did you hear what happened to her? Why she was gone all last semester?"

"Oh! Wow! Do tell!" Melissa said eagerly.

"I heard that she was sent away to live with her uncle in Townsville for the first semester because her parents didn't want to deal with her," Christa began as she lowered her voice. Her ladies-in-waiting gathered around to listen. "But then she ran away from home and ended up living with five sleazy guys."

"Ewww!" Destiny and Melissa shrieked in unison. Angela wondered at that moment if it was possible to die from embarrassment.

"Didn't she get knocked up by one of them?" Destiny asked.

"It wouldn't surprise me," Christa said as she shuddered at the thought. "All I know is that they never found out which one was the father!"

_Of course, so now I'm a loser AND a slut_, Angela thought as she rolled her eyes.

"I'm just glad I'm not a loser like her," Christa said quietly. "If I were, I'd totally kill myself."

_You cannot sacrifice honor for love_, Blossom's words echoed through the deep recesses of Angela's brain. But what if the honor of those you deeply cared about, including yourself, was being threatened right behind your back?

Blinded by fiery rage, Angela threw the stall door open and the supercilious grins on the faces of the Barbie crowd melted away into a look of confusion and fear. Angela lunged at Christa, tackling her to the ground as Destiny and Melissa shrieked in unison. Christa screamed as Angela threw several blows to Christa's long, shapely nose. She forced Angela off of her and landed several punches on Angela's face, giving Angela a black eye. Angela grabbed tufts of Christa's long, soft red hair and yanked sharply on it as both girls heard a harsh, demanding voice.

"_What_ is the meaning of this?" The headmistress, Ms. Mortimer, asked furiously. The two brawling schoolgirls stared up at the sharp-faced woman.

The next hour marched on as Angela and Christa sat silently in Ms. Mortimer's office as she lectured the girls on the school's "zero tolerance for violence" policy. Angela stared at the bruises on her knuckles as Ms. Mortimer prattled on angrily. This lecture didn't excite her either, but it sure beat being in class.

"The both of you will be suspended for one week after the break," Ms. Mortimer said harshly. "This shall _not_ happen again."

"Sweet! My spring break's been extended!" Angela said in excitement.

"I hope you're not viewing this as extra vacation time, Miss Morbucks," Ms. Mortimer sternly scolded. "You will be expected to make up all of your assignments that you miss in your absence and you will not be permitted to attend any of the school's extra-curricular activities including your performance in the annual ballet recital and freshmen continuation."

Angela rolled her eyes. Yeah, it would be a bummer not to perform in the ballet show, but freshmen continuation was the stupidest idea invented by this institution. It was just like the prom except since this was an all girls' school, the students were allowed to invite one male guest. Whatever! Angela rolled her eyes as Ms. Mortimer picked up the ringing telephone.

"Miss Morbucks, your ride is waiting out front," Ms. Mortimer said. "This will not happen again."

"Yes ma'am," Angela said quietly as she left Ms. Mortimer's office. She shot Christa a dirty look as she made her exit.

Meanwhile, in Townsville, the Gangrene Gang crowded the sidewalk as they headed back to the dump from the Circle J where they spent the entire day playing Pacman and trying to beat the high score that Angela set months back.

"Sssssay, whatever happened to Angie, anyway?" Snake mused.

Whether Ace wanted to or not, the other guys never allowed him to forget about Angie. Even though he still couldn't read all that well, he still enjoyed getting letters from her every so often. But distance doesn't always make the heart grow fonder.

He couldn't help it. Every time he saw an attractive woman, he had to make a smart-ass comment or hit on her in some way. The other day, the gang went to McDonald's for lunch, and after the attractive female server brought them their food, that's when Ace's ways got the better of him.

"Damn, she's hot," Ace muttered not-so-subtly under his breath. She was your cliché blonde with big breasts. He watched her walk away; she swiveled her hips ever so slightly as she walked. "Hey lady! You got any fries to go with that shake?"

The other guys laughed.

The server turned around and gave Ace a dirty look. Her face was bright red from embarrassment and rage. She continued walking away.

"Damn, I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave!" Ace said flirtatiously as the poor, humiliated server attempted to walk back behind the counter.

"Come on Ace!" Arturo jabbed. "Angie won't like it if she knew you were flirting with other women while she was gone!"

"Aw shut up Arturo, like you wouldn't do the same thing if your girlfriend was outta town?" Ace asked. A part of him wanted to add that Angela was probably never coming back, despite the fact that every single letter she sent closed with the promise that she'd figure out a way to come back to Townsville someday.

"You're right," Arturo nodded. "I probably would."

"Besides," Ace added, "I wouldn't be surprised if Angie was hittin' on other guys, too."

"You guys are assholes," the server muttered. She overheard every word of their conversation.

"Babe, we got the guest list for this conversation, and you ain't on it!" Ace said as his friends laughed.

Of course on this particular day, the thoughts and memories of Angela refused to leave Ace alone, especially because there was a letter waiting on the doorstep of the shotgun shack when the gang returned to the dump. The envelope read:

Ace D. Copular

The Shotgun Shack, Townsville City Dump

Townsville, California

"Oooh! It'ssss a letter from Angelassssss!" Snake hissed excitedly.

"Big Billy misses Angie," Big Billy said sadly. Grubber blew a raspberry in agreement.

"I miss her, too," Arturo added. "Things aren't much fun without her."

"Do you wantsssss me to read the letter to youssss?" Snake offered as they stepped into the shotgun shack.

Ace hated asking Snake for help, partly because Snake was always his lackey and partly because he was just too proud to admit when he needed help from anyone. Snake and Grubber were the only members of the gang who were totally literate, and so Ace usually relied on one of them to read Angela's letters. Someday he'd make good on his promise to learn how to read, but not today.

"Sure, whatever," Ace said nonchalantly.

Snake opened the envelope and read Angela's scratchy handwriting:

"Dearsss Ace and the resssst of the gang," Snake began, "I am doing wellsssss. Sssschool ssssstill sssscuksss and the other girlsss are ssssstill bitchessss but I do what I can. I don't have much time to write sinsssse I am in classss, but I promissssss I'll come vissssit youssss very ssssssoon. Love, Angela."

"She keeps sayin' she'll come to visit, but she never does," Ace said as he shrugged his shoulders. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Someone's bitter!" Arturo teased.

"I'm not bitter!" Ace said defensively. "If Angie didn't forget about us, she woulda come to visit by now! I'm just sayin' what I know is true!"

"If it'ssss true," Snake said, "then would Angie ssssstill take the time to write lettersss to usssss?"

Ace punched Snake's long, pointy nose. Snake rubbed his aching nose and groaned in pain. Ace would never in a million years admit that Snake was right. His pride just wouldn't allow it.


	2. All the Things She Said

**SuperSailorCharon: I do not own Powerpuff Girls or "All the Things She Said" by Simple Minds. **

Angela sat in the back of the limo next to her furious mother, not knowing what punishment to expect. Her parents already gave her back her allowance after taking it away from her and sending her away sure didn't work either. What more could they possibly do?

"_Suspended_?!" Her mother asked furiously. "You were _suspended_?!"

"Please, Mom! It's not like I haven't done worse! What's your problem?" Angela asked nonchalantly.

"What's my _problem_?!" Penelope asked, taken aback. "Angela, what are we supposed to _do_ with you? Your behavior the last few years has been less than acceptable! First you fail charm school, then you get thrown out of boarding school, and then you run away from your uncle's house and get into trouble with a bunch of hoodlums! Sweetie, you're not on the right path to success! How can you _ever_ hope to attract a man in the state you're in?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Angela said in shock, "is that all I was put on this earth for? To attract a man?"

"Of course!" Penelope cried. She took a deep breath and said, "Angela, you're fifteen years old. You're growing up so fast, and you need to know that coming from a wealthy family has a lot of responsibility."

"Where have I heard this lecture before?" Angela asked as she rolled her eyes.

"You will listen and you will listen well," Penelope said sharply as she lowered her voice. "Your father and I were lucky enough to have a daughter, but since we don't have a son, we need someone to hopefully inherit your father's oil company when the time comes. We have all this money most people would kill to have. We need to keep that beautiful money in the family."

Angela rolled her eyes. Of course. Her mother was only hoping to turn her into a "proper young lady" with the hope of attracting someone from a family that was just as important and wealthy as her own. Although she had absolutely no interest in becoming an oil tycoon, she often mulled over the possibility of just taking over her father's company herself just so she wouldn't be forced to marry someone who could very-well be absolutely annoying. Or worse…boring as hell.

"I think knowing that you've left the privileged life for one of squalor and discomfort will be enough of a punishment for you," Penelope said cryptically. "Because truthfully, I have no idea how to make you understand anymore."

Of course. Money was all that mattered. No one cared about anything else.

The limo pulled into Soaring-Swing Acres. That was the name Sam Morbucks had affectionately given his estate. When Penelope and Sam were looking at property in Cityville, the realtor knew exactly who Sam Morbucks was and did not like him one bit. The realtor vowed that he would sell the property to the Morbucks family when pigs flew.

So now here was Sam Morbucks and his wife now. Here, he had a house that was as big as his little brother's with acres of land as far as the eye could see and a fully-furnished three-bedroom guest cottage that Angela called home.

The limo drove up the winding driveway past the gilded gates. It stopped in front of the blue a-framed cottage that Angela resided in.

"I'm throwing a party tonight, so try to stay out of the way," Penelope said flatly as Angela stepped out.

"What kind of party?" Angela asked innocently. Truth be told, Angela already knew. This was one of those parties sponsored by various companies looking to sell their crappy goods, kinda like a Tupperware party. Except Angela knew from the brochures that were lying around in the foyer, this wasn't a Tupperware party; it was a lingerie party. Either way, Angela enjoyed it when her mother threw a party because party leftovers always made an excellent breakfast.

"That's _none_ of your business!" Her mother replied defensively. Angela giggled as she hopped out of the limo and took the keys to the front door out of her backpack. The limo continued to drive around the winding driveway, onward towards the mansion. She unlocked the front door and stepped into the main room, which was designed to look like a 50's diner, complete with checkered floors, chrome countertops, and a fold-out sofa with a flame design.

The guest cottage had the main room, a small break room with several outdated arcade games and a pinball machine, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms. One was Princess's room which was all hers when she came to visit. Angela avoided that room as much as possible because it was a nauseating explosion of white and yellow frills and lace. There was a spare bedroom reserved for any guests the Morbucks family might have expected. Then there was Angela's room, which was white and pink and decorated to look like something from the Victorian era. The plasma screen TV on the wall, the laptop on her desk, and the iPod charger next to her bed looked ridiculously out of place.

Angela walked into the kitchen section of the main room and peeked inside the blue mini-fridge. She rolled her eyes.

"I guess Mrs. Toole will have to go get more pizza bagels," Angela groaned to herself. Mrs. Toole was an older, sour-faced woman who worked for Angela's father and was hired to maintain the guest house. She came in once a day to clean the cottage and wash the sheets, and every so often she went to the store to restock the mini-fridge. The portly woman never spoke to Angela and often greeted her with a stern "HRRRUMPH!" Angela hated that woman with a passion.

"Guess I'll have to order in tonight," Angela realized. She had a habit of talking to herself out loud and oftentimes, even singing at the top of her lungs. She hated the fact that the guest cottage was too quiet, and she constantly needed noise. Either the TV or the stereo would be cranked up to full blast.

Angela dug through the drawers of the counter and took out a menu for the sushi place downtown. She whipped out her cell phone and ordered a platter of spicy tuna rolls and a cup of miso soup.

While fishing for her wallet out of her backpack, a thought occurred to Angela: if she chose not to go out tomorrow, the delivery guy would most likely be the only person Angela would have any interaction with for twenty-four hours.

Later that night, as Angela sat in her room on her lacy, white comforter, Angela realized that she couldn't take much more isolation. Through the lacy cream-colored curtains, Angela could see the lights on in the mansion's entertainment room where Penelope's party was in full-swing. Angela sighed. She flipped on the plasma screen TV and groaned when she made the discovery that there was nothing on.

So far, this was proving to be one boring spring break. With her father working and her mother spending a few days in Florida with her family, Angela would be home for pretty much the whole break. Most of the girls she went to school with would be spending spring break somewhere exotic.

Where could she go when she didn't want to stay home? Angela knew of only one place. Why she didn't think to do it sooner, Angela would never know.

"I know _exactly _where I'm gonna go," Angela realized as she flounced off her bed, not once stopping to consider if Ace or the others had forgotten about her. She picked up her iPod and began to play "All the Things She Said" by Simple Minds. She broke out in an epic little ballet dance solo before the montage of her escape began.

Angela went into her walk-in closet and pulled out the gold tube top, the pink miniskirt, and the glittery leggings she learned to absolutely love. She pulled the scrunchy out of her curly hair and let it drape loosely over her shoulders before taking a straightening iron to it.

She gathered up what little money she would need and stuffed it down her bra before quietly opening the front door, locking it behind her. She fled down the driveway, moving quietly past the mansion. Using her impressive upper body strength, she managed to climb over the fence that kept her prisoner.

Angela raced down the street into the night. The moon was a beautiful white, waxing crescent. She fled past the rows of houses where people had lots of money and didn't care how they flaunted it. She didn't dare stop running until she escaped the wealthy residential area. Her saving grace came to her when she finally found herself sprinting down a sidewalk of the busy part of the city. An advertisement on a bench near the bus stop announced with a giant silver arrow pointing to the left, "Can't get away? Let us take you away! Cityville Train Depot! One mile past Bennett Parkway. Follow this arrow!" Angela continued running in the direction of the arrow as fast as her feet would carry her, never once daring to look back.

At the Cityville Train Depot, Angela walked up to the ticket kiosk and put a ten dollar bill in. The kiosk dispensed a ticket for the midnight train to Townsville. Angela looked up at the clock near the train platform. It was 11:11 at night. Angela knew one of her wishes was about to come true in a matter of hours.

The long string of chrome train cars quickly approached the platform as Angela boarded. She made herself comfortable on the top deck of the train as she stared out the window. The train coasted down the tracks as Angela's eyes gazed at the fleeting nighttime cityscapes shining brightly. Above them was the beautiful moon and a shooting star that zipped through the sky. Angela smiled and tried not to laugh. This was almost too perfectly cheesy and cliché to be real.

The train came to a screeching halt on the platform in Downtown Townsville. Angela bounded off the train and knew exactly where to go. Downtown was not a friendly place to be in Townsville at night. Angela knew that firsthand. But she was so familiar with the area and she was so starved for the closeness of her old friends, she didn't seem afraid at all.

Angela quickly found herself at the Townsville dump. She quickly and quietly approached the shotgun shack. The lights were on. She knew they had to be there and still awake. After all, she remembered that they usually didn't go to bed until some ungodly hour. She braced herself as she knocked on the door.

Arturo opened the door. Upon seeing Angela, his eyes lit up.

"Hey guys!" Arturo cried. "Angie's back!"

"Quit shittin' us, Arturo," Ace said. He, Snake, and Grubber were playing poker. They revealed their hands, and as usual, Grubber managed to win with a royal flush. Grubber ended up inhaling his winnings.

"I'm not! Seriously! Come look!" Arturo cried. Angela bent down and picked Arturo up to give him a big hug. Normally, Arturo would've protested, but with Angela, he didn't mind a bit.

"You staying out of trouble?" Angela asked in greeting.

"You know I never have!" Arturo laughed as Angela set him down. The others eventually came to the door to greet their long-lost friend. Ace merely stood there with his arms folded across his chest. Angela couldn't tell what he was thinking, but his lips turned down angrily, revealing his fangs.

"I go away for four months and _this_ is how you greet me?" Angela asked dryly.

"What took ya so long?" Ace asked impatiently. He couldn't believe Angela was actually standing here and he was looking at her for the first time in four months.

Yes, he was hurt that Angela hadn't come to visit sooner. Of course, his hormones didn't let him stay angry for long.

"Ah, what the heck," Ace said. He walked up to Angela and pulled her close to him. Angela missed that feeling so much, how much he towered over her and how she had to look up whenever she wanted to look him in the eyes. She stood up on her tiptoes as they kissed each other passionately.

They finally parted upon hearing Snake yell, "Get a roomssss!" Ace then asked, "Whaddyas wanna do first?"

"Don't know, don't care," Angela said. "One thing's for sure, she's back in town! Long live the queen!" She cried.


	3. What Angie Wants

**SuperSailorCharon: Once again, I do not own the Powerpuff Girls. Oh, I forgot I also borrowed a line from an episode of The Simpsons. I don't own that either.**

Angela woke up some time in the middle of the next day on the dirty sofa next to Ace. He was still sleeping peacefully. The gang spent the entire night playing poker (and losing to Grubber) and telling dirty jokes.

Angela couldn't wrap her brain around how this place could feel closer to home than all the luxury she had ever known. She figured it would be best not to question it. They never judged Angela or asked her to be somebody else. Instead, she could be exactly who she wanted to be.

"Hey, I didn't know you was awake," Ace said quietly. Angela looked over at him. She grinned at him. He asked her, "I forgot to ask, how'd you get that shiner?"

Angela could tell her eye was really swollen now after yesterday's brawl with Christa. It throbbed uncomfortably, but Angela figured she would be all right.

"You want the truth?" Angela invited with a coy whisper.

"Sure."

"I got into a fight with this bitch that goes to my school."

Ace burst out laughing.

"We taught you well," Ace said proudly.

"Don't flatter yourself," Angela scoffed as she slowly got up from the sofa. "She had it coming sooner or later."

"She probably did," Ace agreed as he sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes from beneath his shades. "So whaddyas wanna do today?"

"We're gonna have a little fun Gangrene Gang style, just like we used to," Angela said.

"That's what I'm talkin' about!" Ace said as he sprang up off the couch.

After the other members of the gang were awake and ready to go, they set out into Townsville, no apparent place to go and no apparent plan in mind as to what sorts of mischief they were going to cause. That is, until Angela caught sight of a payphone on a street corner just down the road for the minimart.

"Guys, I just got a really good idea," Angela said deviously as she eyes the payphone. "Anyone have any quarters?"

"Crank calls?" Arturo guessed eagerly. "I love making crank calls!"

"Even better," Angela said with a wicked grin.

"Aw come on! I wanted to use my quarters to beat your score on pacman down at the minimart!" Ace complained.

"Psh, I told you before! _Nobody_ is gonna beat my score!" Angela bragged. "Anyway, I got a really good idea! It involves this payphone and the mayor's office."

"Aw no! Nuh-uh! No way!" Ace protested. "The last time we did any crank calls involving the mayor, it ended real bad."

"We got beat up," Big Billy reminded her.

"I thought we toldsss youssss that sssstory," Snake said.

Angela remembered the story of how the gang broke into the mayor's office to make crank calls all too well.

"Oh please!" Angela scoffed. "This is _nothing_ like that! This is better! Now Grubber, you up to doing impressions today?" Angela asked. Grubber looked at her reluctantly. "Here's what I need you to do," Angela said as she began to whisper in Grubber's ear. Grubber nodded and blew a phrase of raspberries that sounded like laughter.

"Come on! What's your idea?" Ace asked impatiently.

"You'll see," Angela said as Grubber put a quarter into the payphone and began dialing a number. Someone on the other end picked up.

"Townsville farming company! How can I help you?" The person on the other end asked.

"Well hello! This is the mayor of Townsville!" Grubber said, doing a flawless impersonation of the Mayor which caused the rest of the gang to make pitiful attempts at stifling their laughter. "I need you to send twenty tons of manure to City Hall! Just leave it right in the middle of my office!" Grubber hung up the phone as the gang burst out into fits of laughter.

It didn't end there; Grubber, pretending to be the Mayor, managed to send ten dozen pepperoni pizzas, twenty bags of bird seed, nearly a hundred bouquets of white, long-stemmed roses, forty performing chimpanzees, a DJ, all of the members of the Townsville Aerial Circus, and six prostitutes from a very upscale female escort service all to the mayor's office.

Meanwhile, at City Hall, the Mayor and Miss Bellum were walking towards the Mayor's office as the Mayor was discussing his latest proposal to declare the first Saturday of every month free pickle and pretzel day. Miss Bellum merely groaned in annoyance at her childlike boss as the mayor threw the double-doors of his office open. Miss Bellum gasped in horror.

"Oh! Look! A party!" The Mayor cried excitedly as he grabbed the hand of a buxom blonde prostitute and started dancing with her while the DJ began playing bad hip-hop records. "Come on Miss Bellum! Let's boogie!"

"I need a vacation," Miss Bellum muttered as she muddled her way through the mess and picked up the hotline telephone.

Back at the payphone, the Gangrene Gang doubled over in hysterical laughter as tears streamed down their faces.

"Aw Angie, this was a _great_ idea!" Ace said through his laughter.

Angela smirked as she said, "Lemme take the next call! I wanna do something just for fun."

Angela put a quarter into the payphone as the other line rang. Someone picked up.

"Townsville Perks Coffee Shop," a male voice on the other end greeted. "This is Tom, how may I help you?"

"Yeah Tom, this is Tashiqua," Angela said, pretending to talk like a large black woman. "Whatchoo doin' away from home?"

"Uh, I'm working!" Tom said uneasily as the others tried not to laugh.

"Yeah well you better be workin' cause you're supposed to send me child support!" Angela snapped.

"What?!" Tom asked in disbelief.

"Chi-uld sup-port!" Angela annunciated slower.

"Sorry, you're breaking up," Tom said. He hung up as the gang laughed hysterically and Angela took a bow. However, the gang stopped cheering.

"Uh-oh," Big Billy said slowly.

Angela turned around and saw three very familiar little girls in pink, blue, and green.

"The Powerpuff Girls?!" The six delinquents gasped in unison.

"Put down the phone!" Blossom ordered. "We know _all_ about what you did to the Mayor's office!"

"Oh come on, girls!" Ace argued in his charming, manipulative way. "We was just having fun! We didn't hurt no one!"

"Yeah, but disturbing the peace is a serious criminal offense!" Blossom argued.

"So we're gonna hurt _you_!" Buttercup swore.

"Hold on Buttercup," Blossom said, "We can't beat them up _yet._"

"What are you talking about?" Bubbles asked, her blue eyes widening in confusion.

"I'm pretty sure _one_ of you is a runaway," Blossom said confidently as her pink eyes locked on Angela. "You ran away from home again, didn't you? No wonder the Gangrene Gang's crimes have been either nonexistent or pitiful until now!"

"Please don't send me home!" Angela begged as she got down on her knees. "I'll do anything! I'll even do jail time! You girls lived in Cityville! It sucks, doesn't it? Please don't send me back!" Her lower lip protruded and her big, brown eyes widened. She finally wailed, "Doesn't anyone care what _I_ want?"

"I think the better question is," Ace began quietly as he placed a consoling hand on Angela's shoulders, "doesn't anyone care what _we_ want?"

"Cityville _was_ pretty rotten," Bubbles agreed. "I feel kinda bad for her. Besides, look at her and Ace! They're in _love_ with each other and they look so cute together!" Upon saying that, Buttercup's face turned into an angry scowl of malice. "Can't we just leave them be?" Bubbles pleaded.

"Too late for that, Bubbles," Blossom said as several squad cars arrived at the street corner.

"Angela Morbucks! This is Townsville Police!" Announced the Townsville police chief through a megaphone. We have you surrounded! Your father wants us to send you home ASAP or you will face _serious_ consequences."

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup burst out laughing as Angela's face burned bright red. At that moment she thought it would be a great idea to dig a hole in the middle of the park, crawl inside, pay someone to bury her, and then mark her gravestone:

Here lies Angela Abigail Morbucks

Age 15

Died from utter humiliation

"I guessss your daddy wantsssss youssss to go back home," Snake snickered. Ace socked him in the jaw. If it were anyone else, Ace would've laughed too. But _this_ just wasn't fair. "I mean, sorry youssss gotsssss to leave, Angie."

"Big Billy no want Angie to leave again!" Big Billy whined.

"Sorry boys, but Angela's going back where she belongs! You won't be seeing her anymore if we can help it!" The police chief promised. A police officer handcuffed Angela as she shot a sad glance at Ace. The police officer threw her into the back of a squad car.

"Were the handcuffs _really_ necessary?" Angela whined. "And since I don't even live in this city, this shouldn't even be _your_ responsibility."

"We're just following the orders we received from your father, Miss," the police officer said.

"Take her away, boys!" Blossom ordered.

"Hey that's my line!" The police chief said before saying to the police officer, "Bake her away, toys!"

"You can't take her away from us! This isn't fair!" Arturo protested. He tried to break away from the group as the squad car holding Angela captive sped away towards the bridge that led into Cityville.

"It's no use, Arturo," Ace said in surrender. "She's gone again."

"Aw man," Arturo pouted. "If only I had super speed like I did that time we robbed the convenience store. Then I'd catch up to them no problemo." Arturo's lower lips curled up in a frown. He was glad one of his eyes was constantly hidden by his black hair because he could feel his eyes welling up. It wasn't like someone had taken Maria from him, but this was pretty damn close.

"We can take it from here," Blossom said to the police chief as she and her sisters zeroed in on the Gangrene Gang. Punches flew, blood was shed, teeth were knocked out, and the Gangrene Gang found themselves sitting in a cold jail cell once again with nothing to do but listen to the infrequent opening and closing of cell doors.

"What do wessss do now?" Snake asked. "The warden said we wassss gonna be in heressss until the start of the next chapter," he reminded them as the fourth wall came tumbling down.

"Gimme a minute, I need to think," Ace said. Suddenly, a brilliant idea came to him and he had no idea why he hadn't thought of it before. "I think I know what we do next. Angie's gonna be in for a surprise."


	4. The New Maid

**SuperSailorCharon: I want to take the opportunity to dedicate this story to everyone who read the first one and enjoyed it, as well as those who have prompted me to bring back the sequel. I had no idea this story would become as well-received as it had. I don't own The Powerpuff Girls. Enjoy!**

The squad car sped through the dirty streets of Cityville as the factory on the outskirts of town belched filth into the sky. It eventually made the turn into Diamond Bar, the wealthy area of the city which was like a whole different universe compared to the rest of the sinkhole town Angela called home. It was hard to believe that two very different worlds resided right next to each other in the same city. The mayor of Cityville once put it best: No one actually lives in Cityville; people commute in Cityville. He was absolutely correct. The poor people commuted in Cityville, and the wealthy lived in Diamond Bar.

But Angela didn't _feel_ like she was living. Instead, she merely existed.

The squad car swooped up the driveway around the corner and in front of the mansion. The squad car parked as the police officer stepped out to unlock Angela from the back seat. He led her up to the doorstep where he knocked rapidly on the door and announced, "Townsville Police Department!"

The door opened several seconds later; it was Jeffrey, one of the butlers who worked for Angela's family.

"I see you've gotten yourself into yet another scrape, Miss Angela?" Jeffrey presumed. Angela didn't answer.

"Is Sam Morbucks home?" The police officer asked. "He wanted to see to it that I delivered his daughter home personally." Angela rolled her eyes in annoyance. Her hands were still cuffed and the police officer made it very clear that Angela wouldn't be free from them until she was back in her father's presence to be disciplined accordingly.

"He's in his study. I can send for him," Jeffrey told the police officer.

Two minutes went by. Those two minutes Angela stood in the threshold of the mansion with her hands suffocating under steel cuffs were the longest two minutes of her fifteen short years of existence. Finally, Jeffrey returned as Sam entered the parlor looking furious.

"Thank you Jeffrey, that'll be all," Sam snapped, dismissing the butler.

"I did exactly what you asked me to sir," the police officer said. "I saw to it that she was cuffed and delivered to your door. The next time she causes any trouble, she'll be subjected to Townsville local law." The police officer unlocked Angela's handcuffs as she went and stood next to her father.

"Thank you, officer," Sam said shortly. "You may go now."

"Have a good evening, Mr. Morbucks," the officer said with a tip of his policeman's hat. He stepped back into his squad car and departed while Angela was left to deal with her red-faced father.

"Please, Daddy, I," Angela stammered.

"You and I are going to have a _long_ conversation in my study. Now," Sam said angrily. His tone was low and dangerous.

Angela didn't speak as she followed Sam into the study, a luxurious library with dozens of books (mostly on capitalism) stocking the shelves, and a mahogany desk. Sam took a seat at his desk in the swiveling forest green chair and lit up a fat cigar. Angela sat down across from him in an uncomfortable mahogany chair. She felt a little like she was in Ms. Mortimer's office whenever her father summoned her into his study.

"Do you have _any_ idea how selfish you're being lately?" Sam asked furiously. "Your mother had to be in Florida this evening and she almost didn't go because she had no idea where you went. You nearly made her miss her flight. I knew _exactly_ where you went, though. I can't believe you'd go back and associate with those low-life urchins." There was a silence before he added irately, "People who don't have money disgust me."

Angela had heard Princess say those words before. Angela began to wonder if she was somehow switched at birth with another baby.

"What's my punishment?" Angela finally spoke at last.

"That was it," Sam said. "I hope you realize that any more wild antics with those green monsters you keep spending time with will result in many more rides in a police car. Except you won't be headed for home. You'll be headed straight for the big house and you'll bring nothing but shame and disgrace to this family for generations. You don't want to make Daddy look bad, do you?"

"Psh, Cousin Princess has already been to jail tons of times," Angela scoffed as she rolled her eyes. She didn't have the heart to add that the infamous minimart robbery with the Gangrene Gang led to her very first incarceration.

"My little brother brought nothing but shame to this family starting when he married someone with no money. You remember Narcissa don't you?" Sam asked her in a patronizing way. "Narcissa came from a family with _no_ money at all and she was a gold-digger who _used _your uncle and tried suing him for every penny he was worth when they divorced. Now, luckily, Narcissa didn't get very much, but you don't want to go through that, would you? Why waste your time with those who have no money at all? They'll bring you nothing but pain."

Ace didn't bring her pain. Snake, Arturo, Grubber, and Big Billy never brought her any pain. Despite the fact that they were mean-spirited troublemakers at heart, they showed her the closest thing to friendship she had ever known.

"I'm actually glad you're here right now," Sam said as his tone revealed a more improved mood. "Your mother has been telling me how important it is for you to have friends, particularly female friends, so there's someone I want you to meet."

"Daddy, you're being incredibly predictable," Angela groaned as she rolled her eyes. "You didn't _hire_ someone to be my friend, did you?"

"I'm paying her good money, so you better treat her well," Sam ordered. "I'm paying her to not only provide female companionship for you, but also to replace Mrs. Toole in up-keeping the guest cottage. Mrs. Toole is getting old, so I'm having her perform less vigorous chores here in the mansion until her retirement."

"What's this girl's name?" Angela asked as she rolled her eyes. This was probably going to be some snarky, high-maintenance bitch just like the other girls in her school. Except for Princess (whom Angela greatly annoyed), Angela usually couldn't tolerate the company of another female.

"Her name is Luna. She turned eighteen back in December and she's from Paris," Sam began. "She wanted to work here in the US for a year before going back to France for college."

A French maid. Angela grinned at the cliché. She loved the French culture, but had never been to France herself and had no idea what to expect. Would Luna be a stereotypical snooty French girl or like one of those French people who never took a shower? Then again, after living with five guys for two months, hygiene was the least of Angela's worries.

"I didn't think you'd hire a foreigner," Angela said dryly.

"Of course I would, as long as they spoke perfect English," Sam snapped. Angela tried not to laugh; there were days her father reminded her of the "good ol' 'murican" restaurant owner at the truck-stop in Oklahoma.

"She's almost three years older than me," Angela pointed out. "What would we have in common?"

"I'm sure you'll find something. You're both girls, aren't you? I'll send Luna in right now." Sam pressed a button on the intercom and said, "Luna, you can come in now. My daughter's ready to meet you."

Angela waited in anxious anticipation as a young woman with a babyish face walked into the room. She had wavy blonde hair, a heart-shaped face, and blue-grey eyes that emitted a vibe of kindness. She wore the maid uniform that all of the maids who worked for Angela's family wore. She looked like a bad stereotype.

"Bonjour!" She greeted cheerfully in her French accent. She even _sounded_ like a bad stereotype. Angela was tempted to burst out laughing.

Instead she stood up and held out her hand, "Uh hi," she greeted uncertainly. She noticed Luna stood a few inches taller than herself. "My name's Angela."

"I'm Luna," Luna introduced herself.

"You both can go," Sam said, dismissing the two girls. "Luna already has a lot of unpacking to do."

As the two of them walked out of the study and left the mansion, the girls said nothing to each other for a long and awkward moment.

"Would you like me to help you?" Angela asked.

"Help me with what?" Luna asked.

"Unpack," Angela offered. If a strange female was going to be living with her in her guest cottage for a year, she might as well make the most of it.

"Of course," Luna agreed with a bubbly smile. Of course. This girl was going to put on the smiley façade for as long as she could, and once Angela let her guard down, Luna would show off her true colors. That's probably how it was going to work. Then again, who knows? Maybe Angela would just play along for now. After all, this girl couldn't be _nearly_ as nasty as Mrs. Toole, right?

When they got to the guest cottage, Angela followed Luna into the guest bedroom, dressed up to look like a fancy hotel room complete with the little chocolate mint on the cream-colored pillow with its blue trim. Luna's trunk was already waiting for her by the foot of the bed. The French maid flounced over and popped the lid open.

"So tell me about yourself," Luna began. Her voice was demure and timid, but her expressions remained bright and bubbly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Angela quickly responded in bewilderment, "you're genuinely interested in what I have to say? That's a first!"

"But of course!" Luna replied as a confused look painted itself on her flawless, pale face. "I love to talk! On the airplane, I must've talked for hours to the man sitting next to me! He must have thought I was crazy!"

No one had ever asked Angela to talk about herself. Most of the time, she assumed no one was ever interested. This was going to be an interesting year indeed. Angela thought long and hard as Luna began unpacking beautiful sundresses with bold, colorful patterns from her trunk.

"Uh…" Angela stammered, searching her brain. "I turned fifteen at the end of November, uh I go to Diamond Bar Prep, I like to play pranks, and I like, uh, old things…"

Luna laughed.

"What do you mean by 'old things'?" She asked.

"You know, like old music and movies and stuff like that," Angela said. "My cousin makes fun of me because half of my clothes look like they came out of an old black and white movie."

"You like old movies, too?" Luna grinned.

"Well, yeah," Angela said shrugging her shoulders as she forced out a giggle. "I like to watch anything with Marilyn Monroe in it but I also really like movies from the eighties, too."

"I do too," Luna agreed. She smiled and neatly folded a pair of dress pants before carefully tucking them away in the drawers of the cedar bureau.

"Wait a second, you're not just agreeing with everything I say because my dad's paying you to, right?" Angela asked.

"Pardon?" Luna asked. Her heavy French accent rang out with a tone of defensiveness. An awkward silence passed. She then began to laugh. Now Angela was rightfully confused.

"What are you on and why aren't you sharing?" Angela asked.

"I know what you're thinking. That I'm just going to be nice to you because your father hired me to do that. But I am nice to _everyone_, whether they like it or not," Luna assured her. "Some people think I'm annoying that way. But I don't mind."

A smile rose up on Angela's face. Luna was definitely an odd bird, and maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.

Still, maybe a prank here or there wouldn't hurt. After all, tomorrow _would_ be April Fool's Day.

**Author's Note: It took me a while to write this chapter because I wasn't 100% sure how to develop Luna's character, but nonetheless, I knew it was time to introduce a new female OC (I know some of you probably are confused, but this will make more sense later on). Luna is actually based on two people I know: my friend Tara whom I initially thought was kind of stuck up but turned out to be one of the coolest people I know and my other friend Marta who lives in Poland, but is a total French girl at heart (and also happens to be the one to introduce me to Edith Piaf whose songs will be used in this story). **


	5. Unexpected Visitors

**SuperSailorCharon: I own nothing except for Angela and Luna. **

In a shiny, black convertible, the Gangrene Gang coasted down the bridge that led out of Townsville and into Cityville. It was a beautiful spring morning with a subtle breeze blowing, bugs splattering on the convertible's windshield, and not a care in the world.

"Man Grubber, that valet parking scam _never_ gets old!" Ace laughed as Grubber blew a raspberry in agreement. Grubber's freakishly long tongue flapped in the wind.

"Are we theressss yet?" Snake asked. "How will we know which housssse is Angie'sss?"

"That's an easy one," Ace said confidently. "We just look for the biggest house in the city."

"We may be lookin' for a while," Arturo said. "This city is _huge_!"

As they drove around for a little while in the slums of Cityville, not knowing where to go or where to turn, Ace could already tell he was going to like this place. A buxom redhead walked down the street wearing a miniskirt and a pink tank top. Grubber slowed the car down for a moment. Ace wolf-whistled at the woman whose face turned bright red with embarrassment. Grubber put his foot on the gas as they sped off down the dirty streets of the smoggy city.

"You realize you have a girlfriend," Arturo reminded him.

"I already told ya, Arturo," Ace said, "If you had a girlfriend, you'd probably do the same thing when she's not around. And Angie ain't here, so no harm, no foul."

Arturo sat in the back between Big Billy and Snake. He couldn't help but roll his eyes in annoyance.

"You are so full of shit," Arturo muttered very quietly.

Meanwhile, back at the guest cottage on the Morbucks' property, Angela's eyes opened slowly as the sunlight seeped into her room.

April Fool's Day: It was Angela's favorite holiday, with Halloween being a close second. Any occasion in which Angela could pull all sorts of random hi-jinks was perfect for her. And with a brand new target, Angela wasn't sure where to start.

As Angela rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she flounced up on her bed and drew back her lacy curtains to allow the sunlight in. As she decided on what to wear that day, she also had a much more pressing issue to debate: what kind of prank should she play on Luna?

Luna had been nothing but kind to her from the moment she arrived. That previous night after dinner, Mr. Morbucks gave Luna permission to take Angela to an upscale ice cream parlor at the edge of Diamond Bar where Luna treated Angela to a double-scoop ice cream cone. And despite the fact that Luna was three years older than herself, Luna's bubbly, talkative demeanor led Angela to believe that she was a bit naïve.

Angela decided a simple prank would be the best for now. She wasn't sure she could live with the guilt if she hurt Luna's feelings. Even ruthless troublemakers have a heart somewhere…

Maybe the classic "tie a string to a dollar and yank it away" trick or the old dribble-glass gag. Either way, it would have to be something that Luna might find funny, too. She'll save all of her bigger pranks for random strangers that she knew she'd never see again.

As Angela slipped on a puffy yellow dress and brushed the tangles out of her frizzy brown curls, she could smell a delicious, sweet aroma coming from the kitchen. She quietly tiptoed out of her room to find Luna hard at work.

"Bonjour!" Luna chirped cheerfully. "How are you on this lovely morning?"

"What's all this?" Angela asked.

"In France, we really don't eat breakfast. We might have coffee and some fruit or something like that. But I know in America, you adore breakfast, so I thought I would make something just for you."

"Awww, thanks Luna!" Angela said graciously as she slid into the booth. Luna plopped an appetizing pastry onto a blue plate and carried it over where she set it on the chrome table in front of Angela. Angela's mouth watered as she stared at the succulent, sugary breakfast tart.

"Taste it! You will like it!" Luna promised her.

Without thinking twice, Angela picked up the pastry and sunk her teeth into it. It was sweet and doughy, but the center was tough. No matter how hard she tried to tear off a piece, the center of the pastry still remained intact.

"Uh, Luna, this is a good pastry," Angela said hesitantly, "but the center is impossible to eat! It feels kinda fluffy, which is really weird."

Angela looked closely at the center of the pastry as Luna began to giggle quietly. A dawning realization fell upon Angela as she uncovered the center of the pastry, scraping off bits of dough with her hands to reveal a pink and white powder puff covered in crusted dough.

"April Fools!" Luna cried as she burst out laughing.

Angela sat there staring at the powder puff in her hands for a moment in complete bewilderment. She wasn't sure what was more incredible: the fact that a total stranger had just pulled an ingenious prank that she would've never otherwise thought of or the possibility that the French observed April Fool's Day.

A grin rose up on Angela's face. Now she was _sure_ she liked Luna.

"You're good," Angela admitted. "I woulda never thought of that one."

"I _love_ playing jokes on people," Luna told her as her laughter subsided. "It's always lots of fun!"

"There's no way you and I seriously have this much in common," Angela said with a cynical smile.

Luna was about to say something when the front door flew open as her jaw hit the floor. Five teenaged guys she had never seen before walked through the threshold. And they were _green_. In a panic, Luna hurried towards the telephone. As she picked up the phone off the receiver, Angela stopped her.

"It's okay," Angela assured her as she pressed her finger down on the receiver so that all Luna could hear was a busy signal. "You don't have to call the cops. These guys are my friends."

Luna heaved a sigh of relief that Angela knew these random strangers. She stepped away from the telephone. Angela went to hug all of her friends whom she made crank calls with the day before.

"How'd you guys _get_ here?" Angela asked, not bothering to mask the giddy crescendo of surprise in her voice.

Grubber blew a raspberry. Luna tried not to recoil in disgust.

"Yeah, I had a feeling you had something to do with this, Grubber," Angela said as she hugged the hunchbacked teen. "Man, I'm _so_ glad to see you guys!"

"So _this _is what you look like when you're not hangin' out with us at the Townsville Dump," Arturo said, making note of Angela's curly dark hair and fancy clothes. "You look _fine_ girl."

"Hey, it's _my_ job to say that," Ace snapped as he held Angela tightly and kissed her forehead. Angela grinned as Ace looked past her at the young French woman. "Who's this broad?" Ace asked.

Snake was about to say something in a pitiful attempt to stand up to his rude friend, but he didn't. Instead, he stared in speechless awe at Luna.

"This is Luna and she's from Paris," Angela introduced. "She works here now. Luna, these are my friends. They live in Townsville."

"Your friends are green," Luna whispered, trying not to be rude.

"And my friends are probably playing a bad April Fool's Day joke on me by showing up to my place unannounced, right?" Angela mused.

"Whoa, it's April Fool's Day?" Ace asked. "I didn't know that!" Angela couldn't tell if Ace was being sarcastic or not.

"We figured if you couldn't come see us, we'd visit you!" Arturo explained.

"It was _my_ idea!" Ace reminded him.

"And it wassss a good ideasss," Snake agreed. Luna giggled as her tense expression turned into a shy smile.

"It's a very good thing my dad decided to leave for a couple days," Angela laughed, thanking her lucky stars that her father frequently enjoyed entertaining the other members of the Billionaire Club on his hot air balloon/casino. "I would probably get my ass kicked if he was here right now," she realized.

"Can someone please explain to me what is going on?" Luna asked, growing impatient.

"Let's just say we're not the kinda guys you bring home," Ace said slyly.

"These guys are my best friends in the whole world and my parents can't stand them for some weird reason," Angela explained. Luna nodded as though she understood.

"Big Billy likes this place!" Big Billy declared as he sat down on the flame-painted sofa which creaked and indented under his massive weight.

"Yeah, you do live pretty fancy here," Ace agreed as he glanced at his new surroundings. "You wouldn't mind if we crashed here for a few days, would ya? You know, we taught ya how to live like us. Maybe you could turn us into proper gentlemen or somethin' like that."

Angela thought for a moment. She still couldn't tell whether or not Ace was being sarcastic. He probably was since the rest of the gang burst out laughing.

_I lived in their world for two and a half months_, Angela recalled. _Would it be so bad if they lived in mine for a little while?_

"What the hell!" Angela announced. "This'll be great!"

"You do realize if they get caught, I will get fired," Luna warned her sharply, realizing that this was _definitely_ not what she signed up for.

"I swear, I'll take all the blame," Angela promised.

"Their car is parked outside," Luna pointed out. "How are we going to hide it from your mother and father?"

"I'll think of that when it happens," Angela swore.

"You can say it's yours and you rented it so you can, you know, get around and take Angie places, and stuff like that," Ace suggested.

"But I'm from France!" Luna protested. "I don't have an American driver's license! What if her parents want to see it?"

"We'll think of that when it comes, too," Angela said, only half sure of herself.

"It'ssss okay," Snake assured Luna with an extra hint of charm in his tone. His serpent-like eyes never once looked away from Luna. "We'll make sure Angie'sss parentsss have no idea we're here. Any friend of Angie'sss is a friend of ourssss."

"Merci, Monsieur…" Luna stammered uncertainly before she added, "What do I call you?"

"Everyone calls me Ssssnake," Snake introduced himself as he held out his spindly hand and took Luna's slender one and kissed it like the proper gentleman he was raised as. Ace couldn't believe his eyes.

"You mean like the animal?" Luna asked.

"Yesssss," Snake said, revealing his forked tongue. Luna turned bright red.

"Your friends have a charming sense of humor," Luna admitted as she looked over at a hopeful-eyed Angela. "I do not see why they cannot stay."

"Awesome!" Angela cried as she walked over and put a quarter in the jukebox that was on the other side of the retro sitting room. 50's hop music began to play. Grubber began to boogie and flail his spaghetti-like arms and Angela began to dance alongside him. The others looked at Grubber and Angela as though they'd lost their minds. "Let's _party_!"


	6. The Chaos Machine

**SuperSailorCharon: I own nothing! I also regret nothing! **

That afternoon, the Gangrene Gang, Angela, and Luna decided to go for a walk around Diamond Bar, trying to decide what act of chaos they should commit first. Angela toted a large backpack full of random junk she collected around her house. After all, you never knew when a flyswatter or a bag of lemons would come in handy.

"We could make more crank calls," Angela proposed.

"Nah, that ussssually doessssn't end wellsssss," Snake reminded her.

"Besides, we did that yesterday!" Arturo protested.

"We could go to the park and pick on the little kids," Ace suggested.

"You are horrible," Luna said dryly.

"Come on, Luna! I thought you liked playing pranks!" Angela coaxed.

"Not if someone is going to get hurt," Luna retorted.

"Well no one asked if you wanted to come with us!" Ace told her. "You coulda just stayed back at Angie's!"

"I asked her to come with usss!" Snake reminded him.

"Yeah, well no one cares about you, Snake," Ace said as he ignored his serpent-like right-hand man.

"I promissssss, no one will get hurtsssss," Snake assured her. "We'll just have ssssssome fun." Somehow, Luna wasn't totally convinced.

"Even better than going to the park, I think I have an even better idea," Angela said confidently. "The middle school doesn't get out for spring break until later this week, so we could go over there and have a little fun, if you get my drift."

"And the best part is we got a lot of stuff we can use!" Arturo said excitedly.

Angela and her friends found themselves twenty minutes later standing in the quad-area of Diamond Bar Junior high where a bunch of kids were sprawled out under the trees chatting with each other, enjoying their lunches, and laughing loudly.

"Gentlemen," Angela began. She quickly remembered Luna and added, "Oh, and Luna, too. We're about to have a little fun."

The seven teens were about to approach a group of pre-teen girls when a nerdy young boy jumped out in front of them. The boy was scrawny and wore tight suspenders. His black hair was neatly combed.

"Do you have a hall pass?" The boy demanded.

Ace began to laugh.

"We don't even go to this school!" He said when he finally gained his composure.

"Well you'll have to go to administration and get a visitor's pass," the boy said with an air of authority.

"I got a question," Angela began. "How're you the hall-monitor when this school doesn't have halls. It's just a bunch of buildings surrounding a quad area."

The boy just stood there totally dumbfounded.

"If you don't have a visitor's pass or a hall pass, then get out of my school!" The boy demanded irately.

"What's the matter?" Ace asked patronizingly. "Is someone getting angry with us because we don't gots no hall pass?"

"Buddy, you're picking the wrong guy to mess with," the boy said. "You're making the biggest mistake of your life!"

Pretty soon, a bunch of other kids were watching the commotion. They all turned to watch the nerdy kid square off with a bunch of teenagers. The middle schoolers began to chant, "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"We didn't do anything wrong," Arturo protested. "We're just minding our own business and then you had to go get in our faces!" Grubber blew a raspberry in agreement.

"Guys, guys, guys," Angela said calmly. "I know how this can be solved." Angela took a flyswatter out of her backpack and began smacking the kid in the butt with it while she yelled at the top of her lungs, "WAFFLE-BUTT!"

Everyone laughed hysterically as the nerdy kid ran off. Of course, he couldn't get away because Ace had grabbed him by the shirt collar and began beating him up for lunch money.

All hell broke loose on the campus as the gang split up across the quad-area and began terrorizing the other kids. Ace and Snake teamed up to give some unsuspecting pre-teens wedgies and wet-willies before stuffing them into trashcans. Of course, Grubber would usually jump out of said trashcans and scared the heck out of whatever kids would be dumped in there. Angela and Arturo had taken the giant bags of Skittles out of Angela's backpack and began pelting people as hard as they could while yelling, "TASTE THE RAINBOW!"

Billy had actually become quite popular with the middle schoolers. All of the kids had gathered around him and paid him to eat their disgusting school lunches. Big Billy picked up a tray of unidentifiable foodstuffs and shoveled it into his mouth before letting out a mighty belch.

"Wow!" Shouted a boy wearing a soccer jersey. "Did you see that?"

"Yeah!" Cried his friend. "That guy ate the beef stew!"

"Eww, no one eats the beef stew," said a girl with her blonde hair in pigtails. "I hear that it's actually heated-up dog food."

"Are you gonna finish that?" Big Billy asked the girl as she had a tray of meatloaf in her hands. "Big Billy still VERY hungry!"

"Go ahead," the girl said in disgust as Billy plucked the tray out of her hands and dumped the meatloaf into his mouth.

Meanwhile, Ace, Snake, Angela, Grubber, and Arturo were ultimately hunted down by the principal and dragged off the campus by their ears.

"And _stay_ out, you chaos machine!" The principal demanded as he tossed the teens onto the curb before dusting off his hands. "You hooligans have been nothing but trouble!" He disappeared back onto the campus as the gang continued to walk down the street.

"He just called us a chaos machine," Angela recalled as she stroked her chin in thought. "I like the sound of that."

"We should call ourselves that from now on," Arturo agreed. Grubber blew a raspberry in agreement.

"Nuh-uh, no way," Ace protested. "We've always been the Gangrene Gang and we're never gonna change that."

"Psh, whatever," Angela scoffed. "I'm still referring to us as The Chaos Machine while you're not around."

"You would," Ace retorted. "Now whadda we gonna do? We got thrown outta the school and there's nothin' to do."

"At leassst it wassss fun while it lasssted," Snake admitted.

"Are we all here, at least?" Angela asked. Grubber blew a raspberry as Angela said, "You're right, Grubber, we're missing a few people."

"Wasn't the French chick here with us a while ago?" Ace asked.

"Yeah, Luna's gone," Angela said as she took out her backpack. She zipped it open and realized the big bag of lemons she packed had disappeared. "And she took my lemons!"

Grubber blew a raspberry and pointed to the other side of the street. The gang looked as Luna stood on a corner wearing a t-shirt that said "life". She handed out lemons to everyone that walked by.

"What the hell is she doin'?" Ace asked.

The gang walked across the street as Luna smiled and waved.

"Would you like a lemon?" She asked.

"I don't get it," Ace said.

"I do," Snake laughed. "Haven't you heard the expression 'When life givessss you lemonssss…" of course, he was cut off by Ace smacking him in the nose.

"Come on, lemme show you how it's done," Ace said as he snatched the bag of lemons from Luna. Luna began cursing Ace out in French as Ace pelted random strangers with the lemons. Eventually, Grubber, Snake, Angela, and Arturo joined him until the bag was empty. He then asked, "Okay, well we found the annoying French chick. Any of yous seen Billy?"

"Excuse moi!" Luna snapped. "The 'annoying French chick' has a name!" Of course, she was ignored when Big Billy walked up to the gang counting heaps of twenty dollar bills.

"One, three, eleven…" Big Billy counted mindlessly.

"Billy, you can't count, what're you doing?" Arturo reminded him.

"Oh yeah. Billy don't know how to count," Big Billy laughed.

"How'd you get all that money?" Ace asked, trying to hide his amazement that the dumbest member of the gang had successfully managed to walk away from the school with a ridiculous amount of money.

"Big Billy has a job eating lunch now," Big Billy said slowly as the clueless smile never once left his face. The others just stared at him.

"Sssspeaking of lunch, I'm hungry," Snake complained as his slender stomach growled.

"Yeah, me too," Ace agreed. "Let's go find somethin' good and then we'll go back to Angie's place."

"Big Billy still hungry!" Big Billy cried excitedly.

As the seven of them walked down the street arguing over what it was they wanted for lunch, they happened to pass the Cityville DMV. As they kept walking, Angela stopped and stared at the grey, sad-looking building. At that moment, her brain developed a genius idea.


	7. The Man-Eating Chicken

"Angie, whaddya doin' standin' outside some stupid DMV for?" Ace asked. "C'mon, let's go get something' to eat!"

"I think I got a really, really good idea," Angela said with a smirk on her face. "You guys go ahead without me. I'll catch up to you later."

"You sure you won't need someone to help you?" Lil Arturo asked. Angela looked infinitely confused.

"Well, I don't think so," Angela laughed, "but you're welcome to keep me company. Just stay quiet, and follow my lead."

"Angela, what are you talking about?" Luna asked concerned. "I hope you are not planning on doing something that could get me fired."

"Luna, it's not like I'm doing anything illegal, just go ahead with the others, and I'll meet up with you later," Angela assured her.

The rest of the gang and Luna walked up the road to the nearest KFC as Angela and her tiny partner in crime walked into the DMV where many other people stood in line looking very bored and miserable.

"Aw, come on, we're not gonna stand in line all day, are we?" Arturo complained. "Angie, what're we even doing here?"

"You'll see," Angela said. Arturo didn't look convinced as he folded his arms impatiently across his chest.

Rather than waiting in line, Angela made a beeline for one of the counters that a very obese guy was sitting behind. He looked just as bored as the people standing in line. He didn't look up at Angela, but focused intently on his computer screen.

"Ma'am, you're gonna have to take a number and wait in line like the others," the guy at the counter said.

"I'm not here to get my permit," Angela said. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

The guy behind the counter glanced up at Angela.

"Ms. Morbucks! What are you doing here?" The guy at the counter asked in surprise.

"My daddy was wondering if you had an ID maker you weren't going to use anymore," Angela asked sweetly.

The obese guy looked her over and caught sight of Arturo, who was barely tall enough to reach halfway up the counter.

"Who's your friend?" The obese guy asked.

"This is Arturo," Angela introduced. "He's a friend of mine and he's visiting from the inner city," she said as she had her fingers crossed behind her back. "Anyway, so do you think we could have that ID maker?"

"Well that depends, what's he need it for and how much do I get for it?" The obese guy wanted to know.

Angela thought quickly. Having an awesome bullshit maker only worked if the person she was lying to didn't have an awesome bullshit detector in return.

"A bunch of his corporate employees need to start wearing ID cards when they're working in the office," Angela lied. "He says he'll give you four hundred for the ID maker depending on what condition it's in."

The obese guy got up from the counter and waddled away. He returned five minutes later with a bulky ID maker. He huffed as he set it down on the counter in front of the teens. Angela and Arturo looked at each other in confusion.

"This looks fairly new," Angela said. "You sure you won't need it?"

"We just recently started using brand new software to make the IDs and stuff instead of doing it by machine," the obese guy explained as he wiped the sweat from his brow. Angela tried not to cringe. She took the crisp hundred dollar bills out of her dress pocket and handed them to the obese guy who thanked her graciously. He tried to shake her hand.

"No thanks necessary," Angela said as she picked up the ID maker. She winked at Arturo and said, "Come on Arturo, let's go take this home to Daddy."

Arturo still wasn't sure what Angela was planning, but the moment they walked out of the DMV, it hit him like a ton of bricks.

"We're not gonna use that for what I _think_ we're gonna use it for?" Arturo asked in excitement.

"You betcha," Angela said as she lowered her voice. "Fake IDs for everybody!"

Arturo grinned. Every time he smiled, his under bite became very pronounced. It was interesting to him that Angela had all the money in the world and she still wasn't happy unless she was causing some kind of trouble.

And he wouldn't have changed that about her for all the money in the world.

"Where'd everyone go?" Angela asked.

"Good question," Arturo said. "They said they went to get some food, but I don't really know where they ended up going."

Suddenly, the two of them heard a familiar voice, calling out, "Come one! Come all! See the giant man-eating chicken! He stands nearly seven feet tall! See him now while you still have the chance! Your life will change forever!"

A little further up the road on a street corner, Luna was standing on a turned over soap box shouting out about a man eating chicken. Next to her, Ace was taking money from people as they walked behind a tattered pink sheet which was turned into a make-shift curtain.

"Enjoy the show!" Ace said slyly as he counted up the money.

"Geessss Luna," Snake complimented. "Thissss was the besssst idea ever!" Grubber blew a raspberry in agreement.

"Shut up!" Ace said as he quietly counted the money when the last of the people disappeared behind the curtain. "I'm tryin' to count here!"

"What did you guys _do_?" Angela asked, trying to stop herself from laughing.

"Luna gotsssss thissss great idea," Snake said. "We all went to KFC for lunch and Big Billy wassss ssssstill hungry."

"We bought him another bucket of fried chicken and then we set up this little tent thingy here telling people there was a man-eating chicken," Ace continued. "It's not like it's false advertisin' or anything like that! There really is a man eating chicken in there! Man, that was the best idea I ever had," Ace beamed.

"You are stealing thunder for _my_ idea!" Luna said angrily. She added under her breath, "Caca boudin."

"What did ya call me?" Ace asked irately.

"Oh, I called you a genius," Luna said charmingly as she crossed her fingers behind her back. Snake tried to stifle his laughter as Luna had told him earlier what a "caca boudin" really was.

"Aw, thanks Luna, I'm flattered," Ace said in awe. Suddenly, dozens of angry people came flooding out from behind the tattered curtain.

"Hey buddy!" Demanded a middle-aged man as he grabbed Ace by the shoulders. Many more angry people were lined up behind this man in an angry mob. "I want my money _back_!"

"Well, I would gladly do that, but unfortunately we have a _very_ strict no refund policy," Ace said in his usual charming manner that made Angela giggle.

Arturo watched as Angela's pale face turned bright red. A twinge of jealousy pulsed through the fibers of his small frame, but he couldn't figure out why.

"Let's get 'em!" The furious man shouted as the others behind him shouted and cried out in agreement. Ace socked the furious man in the jaw and sprinted away as the other members of the Gangrene Gang dashed off in an attempt to escape the angry mob.

Meanwhile, Big Billy waddled out from behind the curtain with the bucket of fried chicken in his hands. He gnawed on a greasy chicken leg and smacked his lips in satisfaction as he tossed the bucket onto the sidewalk. He gleefully followed the angry mob as he laughed jovially.

Forty-five minutes later, back in the sitting room of Angela's guest house, the gang sat around rather exhaustedly.

"Damn, that was close," Ace said.

"I know," Angela agreed. "It's a good thing the angry mob fell into the giant hole in the middle of the road where they're doing road work."

"Hey, it's a good thing I suggested we climb up on that construction beam and try to balance our way across the hole," Ace said.

"That was _my_ idea," Luna reminded him impatiently. "But I understand you are a caca boudin."

"I know. I _am_ a genius!" Ace beamed. Angela giggled innocently. "Anyway, anyone seen Big Billy?"

"I think he got left behind," Arturo said. "Maybe the mob carried him off."

Of course, the gang got their answer when Big Billy burst through the door of the guest cottage carrying yet another bucket of KFC.

"Would you kindly stop eating that?" Luna said in disgust. "I am tired of the smell of fried food."

Big Billy just belched in response. Grubber blew a series of raspberries as though laughing.

"So now that we got an ID maker, what're we gonna do with it?" Arturo asked.

"Duh! We make fake IDs, that's what we do!" Ace cried as he smacked his forehead in annoyance.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's get started!" Angela cried.

**Author's note: As you've guessed "caca boudin" is most certainly not a compliment, but an insult. Some of you may even know what it is. Of course, I'm not going to reveal the meaning until later, just for fun, and just to see how long I can get away with having Luna backhandedly insulting Ace. **


	8. Paralyzer

**SuperSailorCharon: I don't own "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven or "What is and What Should Never Be" By Led Zeppelin. I don't own the Powerpuff Girls or the Gangrene Gang. Angela and Luna are MY property. Enjoy!**

In the sitting room, the Gangrene Gang was having too much fun making fake IDs with the ID maker. Meanwhile, Luna offered to help Angela decide what to wear that night since the gang agreed they were going to use their fake IDs to cause all sorts of trouble. As Angela dug through her closet for a suitable outfit, Luna said, "Your friends are very intriguing. How did you all meet?"

Angela told Luna the story of how back in the fall when she went to stay with her uncle in Townsville, she got ridiculously bored and ran away from home for two months. Luckily, on her first night, she bumped into the Gangrene Gang and they took her in. She, of course, left out all of the mischief they caused stealing stuff, picking on kids at the park, and destroying Townsville with their super powers.

"That is fascinating," Luna grinned. Angela held up a blue off-the-shoulder top. "You should wear that tonight. It looks very nice."

"It does?" Angela asked.

"Yes," Luna said. "While I believe your boyfriend is an idiot, he does not know how to take his eyes off of you. He knows you are a beautiful lady."

Angela's face burned with flattery. She wasn't used to being complimented on her appearance.

"What are you going to do tonight?" Angela asked as she slipped out of her dress and put the top on. She rummaged through her closet for a pair of pants. "Aren't you going with us?"

"Perhaps," Luna said. "Or I may stay home." She paused and added, "I will tell you this; your snake friend has a charming sense of humor."

Angela stopped and stared at Luna in amazement.

"You like Snake?" Angela said quietly, trying not to giggle. "Luna, you're eighteen. Snake is fifteen. Doesn't that bother you?"

"Why should it bother me?" Luna asked with a smile. "Your boyfriend is older than you, is he not?"

Angela sighed. She couldn't argue with that logic.

"Besides," Luna added slyly as Angela went back to digging through her closet, "I would like to know what that boy can do with that impressive tongue."

Angela stopped and stared at Luna again in shock.

"I guess what they say about the French being dirty is true," Angela said dryly.

"Are we really dirty?" Luna laughed. "Or are we just more romantic? You Americans need to learn to be more romantic! Actually, I am planning something tonight that I may need your help with."

Luna walked up to Angela and whispered something in her ear. Angela grinned slyly as she listened.

After the Gangrene Gang and their female friends made their fake IDs, they decided to go out for a night on the town to put their fake IDs to use. Of course, Luna wanted to stay behind. For one thing, they would have never all fit in the convertible in the first place without forcing someone to ride in the trunk. As they headed out the door, Angela grabbed her purse which had the remnants of whatever objects did not get used during the random prankings of earlier that day. All that was left were several small bags of chips and a rubber snake.

"If your parents call and happen to ask where I am, I am here cleaning the guest cottage," Luna told Angela as the gang piled into the black convertible. Angela stuck Arturo on her lap as Arturo tried to hide his toothy smile. "Do try to come home on time."

"Geez what are ya, Angie's mom?" Ace asked in annoyance.

"She'ssss jusssst worried about Angela getting in trouble," Snake said diplomatically. "If Angie gets in trouble, everybody willssssss."

"I am not worried Angela will be in trouble," Luna said. "Her parents will be away for a few days, and so as far as they know, I am taking care of her."

"Whatever," Ace said flatly. "Come on Grubber, step on it!"

Grubber blew a raspberry as he stomped on the accelerator. They sped off into the evening as Grubber's tongue flapped in the wind. The six of them cruised around Cityville without a care in the world as the sun dropped into the west. The radio began to play "What is and What Should Never Be" by Led Zeppelin as they all sang at the top of their lungs, scaring off everyone they drove past. As they warbled on, Ace kept turning to the back seat to look Angela flirtatiously in the eyes. Angela loved it when he looked at her that way. It was like he was staring into every piece of her soul.

As night took over Cityville, Grubber slowed the car down in the busy but haunting downtown area, where the streets were covered in litter and masses of unidentifiable junk. Every so often, a sleeping bum would turn his face up to glance at the fancy car drive by. Yet crowds of wealthy people dressed like they were in Miami flocked towards a club where a pink and blue neon sign read "The Church".

"That doessssn't look like any church I've ever sssseeen," Snake said as Ace turned around and punched him square in the nose.

"That ain't a church, it's a nightclub," Ace corrected impatiently.

"That's not _just_ a nightclub," Angela pointed out. "It's only the most prestigious nightclub in Cityville."

The crowds of sharp-dressed people flocked on the red carpet outside the club's entrance marked by a silver curtain and a stern-looking bouncer.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Arturo asked.

"That this is the first place to use our fake ID's?" Angela mused.

"Big Billy wanna go to the club!" Big Billy said as he clapped his hands in amusement.

Grubber blew an excited raspberry and slammed on the breaks as the gang hopped out of the car and got in line.

"Aw man, how're we ever gonna get to the front of the line?" Ace groaned in annoyance at the lengthy line.

"Well, we could pay people to let us jump the line," Angela suggested. "Or we could create a diversion." She turned to Snake and said, "Oh, by the way Snake," Angela said, "I forgot my cell phone. I'll give you bus fare if you go back to my house and get it for me. Luna will know where it is."

"Aw, why do I gotsssss to get your ssssstupid phonessss?" Snake whined. "You probably won't even needsssss it tonightsssss!"

Ace punched Snake in the face again.

"If the lady says she wants her phone, you go get her phone," Ace snapped. "Now get on the damn bus and go back to Angie's place."

Snake rubbed his aching nose and realized it probably would've been a better idea to just do as he was told. He wondered how many more punches to the face he could take tonight. He proceeded up the street to the nearest bus stop. Angela watched him walk away as she grinned.

"Anyway, I think I got an idea how to get to the front of the line," Angela said.

Ace rubbed his hands in anticipation. He loved Angela's ideas. For once, it was nice not always having to be the brains of the operation.

Angela tapped a scantily clad woman on the shoulders. The woman flinched and looked over at Angela.

"What do _you _want?" The woman asked in disgust. She then immediately recognized Angela. "Wait a moment," she gasped. "Aren't you Sam Morbucks's daughter?" She laughed and added, "You're a little young to be at a club like this, you know."

Angela thought for a moment and said, "Uh, sure I am! Actually, I'm not here to get into The Church. My dad sent me here to tell you all that a brand new club opened up down the street called The Gold Ceiling. The first twenty people at the door get a thousand dollars!"

The mere mention of a thousand dollars sent everyone waiting in line to get into The Church into a frenzy as they hopped into their limos and raced off in drones up the street.

"Nice move," Ace complimented in the smooth, cool way Angela came to know and love.

The gang walked up to the door where the fierce-looking bouncer stood. Angela hoped he didn't overhear that the underage daughter of Sam Morbucks was trying to get into the club.

"Lemme see your ID," the bouncer demanded. His eyes were hidden beneath dark shades leaving his face as expressionless as the guards of Buckingham Palace.

Angela's palms began to sweat in nervousness and excitement as she handed her fake ID to the bouncer. He took one look at it and handed it back to her.

"Go on in," the bouncer said as Angela skipped merrily behind the curtain and disappeared into The Church. "Huh," the bouncer observed, "she didn't even wait for me to give her back her ID."

"Why don't you let me give it back to her?" Ace offered with his usual air of charm.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," the bouncer said, "I can't let you in without proper ID. In fact, I can't let _any_ of you in because you're green."

"That's gotta be breakin' some kind of law," Ace said. "You can't just say we can't come in because we're green!"

"What do you care 'bout breakin' the law, Ace?" Arturo asked. "We're bad guys, remember?"

The bouncer gave the remaining four members of The Gangrene Gang strange looks.

"Big Billy wanna go in and dance!" Big Billy begged.

"Well none of you can go in because you don't have the right look," the bouncer retorted. "I can't just let you in here! You'll scare off everyone in the club!

Grubber then straightened out his spine and began to speak with perfect diction.

"Why we're not scary! We promise we'll behave ourselves if you would be so kind as to allow us entrance into this establishment!" Grubber said politely as his spine snapped back into its curved slope followed by a long raspberry.

"Yeah, I'm not buyin' it," the bouncer said. "Step aside because there's people behind you that wanna get in."

Ace realized that these guys were obviously not doing him any favors. In an act of desperation he cried out, "Wait! That girl you just let in! She was usin' a fake ID! She ain't twenty-one! She's only fifteen!"

The bouncer's gaze fell at the ID and the photo that went with it. He studied it very closely and realized that there was no way the girl he just allowed into the club was old enough to be let in.

"Excuse me boys," the bouncer said as he disappeared behind the curtain. He dropped Angela's fake ID on the ground. Ace picked it up and looked at it closely. The first thing that came to mind was the name Angela chose to use:

Angie Copular.

While Ace was figuring out what Angela could be implying by using that as her name on her fake ID, Angela was dancing provocatively in the club to "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven. The music came to a stop as the bouncer confronted Angela in the center of the dance floor. Angela stood there dumbfounded and everyone else in the club, even the people who were too drunk to notice, looked rightfully confused.

"You're using a fake ID," the bouncer said dangerously.

"How did you know?" Angela asked in horror.

"Your buddies outside told me you were," the bouncer said. Angela's jaw dropped that her friends would betray her confidence like that. "Now excuse me Angie Copular, or may I say, Angela Morbucks," he spat, "Your fake ID is no good here."

The bouncer grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and dragged her to the entrance where she was thrown halfway across the street.

"Get outta here," the bouncer said to the Gangrene Gang. "Next time you try and get in with fake IDs, I'm calling the cops."

The Gangrene Gang walked away in annoyance as Grubber blew an angry raspberry at the bouncer. Ace tried to help Angela on her feet but she pushed him away.

"Why did you tell him I had a fake ID?" Angela demanded angrily. "You got me kicked out of the club!"

"Dammit Angie, did you think it was fair that you got to go in and we didn't?" Ace snapped. "I did it 'cause either we all go, or no one goes."

"What about Snake?" Arturo asked.

"Oh yeah, what happened to him?" Ace asked. "Did he get lost or somethin'?"

Angela's lips curved up into a grin.

"Oh shit Angie, whaddya do with Snake?" Ace wanted to know.

"Let's just say he's probably not coming back," Angela said deviously.

Just then, Christa, Destiny, and Melissa showed up wearing skin-tight dresses that were covered in sequins.

"Oooh! Look who showed up!" Christa squealed. "Angela's trying to get into The Church!"

"Whatever, it's not like you guys are old enough to get in either," Angela reminded them.

"That's okay," Destiny said. She added narcissistically, "we just flash the bouncer and he lets us in for free."

"Oh fuck you," Angela groaned.

"Who are those guys?" Christa asked demurely. "Are those the skeezy guys you were living with for two months? I expected that they would look _this_ pathetic, but I didn't expect that they'd be_ green_!"

Christa, Destiny, and Melissa laughed like a bunch of cackling blue jays. Ace saw Angela's face burn with rage.

"You must be Angie's friends from school," Ace began in a charming manner. "She's told me so much about you."

"Like what?" Melissa asked slowly, realizing this couldn't get any weirder.

"I heard you think you're all that and a bag of chips," he said slowly as he discreetly reached into Angela's purse and took out the bags of chips that were in there. His lips turned up into a wicked smile that revealed his fangs as he pelted the girls with the chip bags. Christa, Destiny, and Melissa shrieked as the gang laughed.

"Let's get out of here!" Christa screamed. "These guys are total weirdoes!"

The gang continued to laugh hysterically as the three terrified girls ran away. When Angela caught her breath, she said to Ace, "Okay, I guess I can't be mad at you anymore."

"Is it even possible for you to stay mad at me?" Ace asked seductively as he lowered his shades and looked right at Angela. Her stomach filled with butterflies.

"Let's get outta here and see what happened to Snake," Ace suggested as the gang hopped back into the black convertible and drove off into the night.

**Author's note: I'm well aware of the fact that while The Powerpuff Girls was popular in the late 90s-early 2000's, "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven didn't come out until 2007. I tried to use more modern songs in Gangrene Queen too, so try to suspend your disbelief, if you can. **

**Trivia: The Church is actually a club right here in Colorado. I've never been there myself, but most of my friends have. The Gold Ceiling is a tribute to "Gold on the Ceiling" by The Black Keys. **


	9. The Serpent and the Moon

**SuperSailorCharon: I do not own "Milord" or "Sous Le Ciel De Paris" by Edith Piaf. I also do not own The Powerpuff Girls or the Gangrene Gang. Enjoy!**

The black convertible pulled up to the guest cottage. Through the window, they could see the lights of the parlor faintly glowing through the curtain.

"Park the car as quietly as you can, Grubber," Angela said with a lowered voice. "They don't need to know we're here."

"Angie, what's goin' on?" Ace asked.

"What'd you do to Snake?" Arturo demanded.

"More like, what's Luna doing to Snake," Angela said quietly as her eyes glimmered wickedly. "Now be quiet. Let's see if we can hear what's going on."

They hopped out of the convertible and crowded around the window. The curtains were closed, so they couldn't see what was going on. But they could hear the faint laughter of Snake and Luna mingling with the sounds of "Milord" by Edith Piaf playing on the stereo.

"What are they listenin' to?" Ace asked as he raised his brow in confusion. "It's like in some other language."

"Oh no she didn't!" Angela squealed quietly. "Luna's using my stereo!"

They could hear Luna say softly, "Dinner should be ready in a moment."

"You didn't have to do all thisssssss," Snake said. He sounded nervous and unsure.

"It is nothing," Luna replied, her voice light and flirtatious. "I do what I can for Angela's charming friends."

"You really thinksssss I'm charming?" Snake asked. He sounded a little more relaxed now. Angela couldn't help but giggle. She was certain that Snake's normally green complexion would be bright red right now.

"But of course!" Luna assured him. "I would offer you some champagne, but I did not realize how hard it is to buy alcohol here in America."

"That'sssss what our fake IDssss are for," Snake said. "If you wantsssss, I could get you ssssssome tomorrowsss."

"She's got him wrapped around her fingers!" Ace whispered, not believing what he was hearing.

"That would be nice," Luna said gratefully. "In Paris, it is quite easy for young people to buy alcohol. Not like in America." There was a brief pause in which only the music in the background could be heard. "It is times like this in where I miss my home in Paris."

"What'ssss it like in Parissss?" Snake asked as his interest increased.

"It is tres magnifique!" Luna cried out in whimsy. "I love it! I am hoping Angela will behave herself so I can convince her parents to allow me to take her with me to Paris for a week. You would enjoy it too, I am sure. From where I lived, you could see the Eifel Tower lit up at night. It is most beautiful on New Year's Eve." The song on the stereo changed to Edith Piaf's ballad, "Sous Les Ciel De Paris", or in simple English "Under the Skies of Paris".

"Parissss sounds nice," Snake said softly.

"You know what else sounds nice?" Luna invited.

"No, I don't knowssss," Snake said nervously.

"Well come a little closer and I will show you myself," Luna enticed, her voice dripping with the stain of seduction.

"Awww!" Big Billy cooed. "Snake is in love with Angela's friend! Just like Ace is in love with Angela!"

"Shut up!" Arturo hissed. "They'll hear us!"

It was too late for that. There was silence and then Luna said, "Is someone outside?"

"I don't knowssss," Snake said impatiently. "Lemme go seesssss."

Snake threw open the front door and caught sight of his friends crowded around the window in a pitiful attempt to eavesdrop. Grubber blew a raspberry as though sounding an alarm as the gang turned around to face their serpentine friend.

"Guysss!" Snake hissed impatiently. "Can't youssss guysss cool it?"

"Geez Snake, what is it with you and Angela's friend?" Ace wanted to know.

"She'ssss sexy," Snake admitted.

"And she thinks you're sexy too!" Angela confessed.

"I knowssss," Snake said nervously. "She wassss about to kissssss me before youssss guys showed up."

"Oooh la-la!" Angela mocked.

"Come on guys! Just leave ussss alone!" Snake begged. He awkwardly added, "I've never been kissssssed by a girl before."

"What?!" Arturo laughed incredulously. He didn't want to admit that he'd never been kissed by a girl before either. "You've never kissed a girl before?"

"Oh man, Snake, you're _pathetic_!" Ace shouted as he doubled up with laughter.

"Snake?" Luna called from inside. "Is everything all right?"

"Everything'sssss fine," Snake said quickly.

Of course, two seconds later, Luna showed up at the front door. Her jaw dropped angrily when she noticed Angela and the rest of the Gangrene Gang standing at the window. She began swearing at them in French.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Ace said, interrupting Luna's angry tirade. "Calm down! We was just havin' a little fun eavesdroppin' was all. We didn't hurt no one."

"Well you were not supposed to come back until later!" Luna growled.

"I know," Ace said nonchalantly. "We went to a club and I got Angela thrown out. It was funny 'cause the bouncer threw her halfway across the street." He was met with a dirty look by Angela.

"Luna, please," Angela begged in an attempt to keep the peace, "we're sorry! I know you wanted this to be special and…"

"Wait, you knew about thissss?" Snake asked in disbelief.

"Duh!" Angela cried. "Luna told me she liked you and she wanted to get you alone so she had me create a distraction while we were out tonight. I had my cell phone with me the entire time!"

Snake stared at Luna, hoping for an explanation.

"Oui," Luna confessed. "It is true. I was hoping tonight I could express how I feel about you in a way that only the French know how to do, and Angela wanted to help me."

"You didn't have to goesssss to all that trouble for me," Snake said. "You could have jusssst said ssssomething. Becaussssse I like you too."

Snake stared into Luna's baby blue eyes. He took her into his arms and kissed her passionately with Angela and the Gangrene Gang to witness the unfolding romance of the serpent and the moon with quiet snickering.

As they parted, Snake asked, "Sssssay Luna, What'ssss that smell?"

"Sacrebleu!" Luna cried out in horror. "That would be the dinner!"

"Geez Luna! Try not to burn down the guest house!" Angela cried as Luna panicked to take the burnt duck out of the oven.

"Oh!" Luna pouted in disgust as she set the dish of dried up meat on the stove to cool. "This was not supposed to happen!"

"I'm sorry, Luna," Angela said ruefully. "It's our fault that your dinner got ruined. I promise you I'll make it up to you."

"How?" Luna wanted to know.

"I'll make a nice dinner, just for you and Snake," Angela promised. "Right now."

"Yeah, get in the kitchen, Angie!" Ace joked. Angela shot him a dirty look.

"But Angela, you don't know how to cook," Luna reminded her.

"Oh yeah," Angela said awkwardly. She then remembered, "There's a place in Diamond Bar that serves authentic French food. I'll place an order and the whole thing will be on my dime. I'll even do the dishes!" Angela offered.

"I see," Luna said. "But how do we punish _them_?" She asked as she pointed to the rest of the Gangrene Gang.

"Good point," Angela said. "I wouldn't even trust them with doing the dishes. Have you _seen_ where they lived?"

"Come on, Angie, you know you liked it," Ace reminded her. He flopped down on the flame-painted sofa.

"Oh quiet you," Angela scoffed. "I let you into my room for five minutes and it's _already_ a mess!"

"Come on! I just kicked off my shoes!" Ace reminded her. Arturo could see that this was going to turn into an argument. Lately, most of their conversations ended in an argument. If there was one thing Arturo learned from spending so much time with Ace, it was that if an opportunity presents itself, you better take it.

"No," Angela retorted. "You kicked off your shoes after you tracked mud all over my rug!"

"I can help you clear the table and do the dishes," Arturo volunteered. Angela's face turned up into a grateful smile. She picked up the phone and began placing the order for Snake and Luna's romantic dinner.

"Brown-noser," Ace said under his breath. Of course, Arturo wouldn't hear him. Any chance to impress Angela was all he needed.


	10. Rock Wit U

**SuperSailorCharon: I do not own "Rock Wit U" by Alicia Keys. There are also references from **_**The Simpsons **_**and **_**Fiddler on the Roof**_**. I don't own those either. This chapter may be a little explicit, so consider yourself warned. Enjoy!**

The next morning, Angela woke up as the sun trickled in through her curtains. Her eyes fluttered open. She noticed Ace still sleeping peacefully next to her. Angela smiled to herself as she quietly tiptoed out of bed. She noticed Luna sitting at the table with a cup of coffee and the morning paper. Angela's jaw dropped when she saw the headline read, "Kid Billionaire Heiress Kicked out of Club".

"Oh crap," Angela muttered quietly.

"I know," Luna said. "What do we do? Your father comes home today from his balloon tour."

"Well, fortunately Dad doesn't believe in reading the paper," Angela said in relief. "He believes there's no point in reading what's going on in the news when he's caused half of the stuff that happens here locally. But what are we gonna do about the fact that my friends are still here?"

"Well, the gentleman that blows raspberries, the big guy, and the midget are perfectly content sleeping in Princess's room and Snake said he doesn't mind hiding in the closet," Luna said. "And I do not believe your cousin is coming to visit any time soon, so that should give us a little time, I think."

"And if Dad asks about the car in the driveway, you can just say it's yours and show him your fake ID!" Angela added.

"I agree," Luna nodded. "We will just have to make sure that this house stays clean until your friends decide to leave. No one will ever know they were here."

"Yeah, but I'm not sure you want Snake to leave just yet!" Angela joked.

"No," Luna laughed. "It is amazing what that tongue can do."

"Ewww! I didn't need to know that!" Angela shuddered.

Just then, Sam burst through the door to the guest cottage. Luna quickly stashed the newspaper out of sight.

"Good morning ladies!" Angela's father rang out cheerfully.

"Oh! Monsieur Morbucks!" Luna greeted in mock surprise. "It is so good to see you have returned!"

"Did you enjoy your trip, Daddy?" Angela asked.

"There were lots of people who stopped by to tour with me on my balloon-casino," Sam prattled on. "Lots of world leaders from all corners of the globe and all with an extravagant amount of money."

"So it was boring and the same as usual?" Angela mused.

"You got that right," Sam confirmed. "Anyway, I was just checking in to see how you two are getting along. The house looks spotless, Luna. Good job."

Luna's face turned bright red. That was because Angela had offered to clean the guest cottage herself so Luna and Snake could enjoy their time together. She did have a little help from Arturo. She would have to thank him somehow sooner or later.

"Wait a second, what are these?" Sam observed as he walked over to the flame-painted sofa. Angela gulped. She didn't realize that Ace took his wristbands and his shades off and just left them lying on the sofa before going to bed. Sam picked up the red, white, and blue wristbands and said, "These are neat. I don't think I've seen you wear these before. They're not your usual style."

"Luna's helping me update my wardrobe!" Angela blurted out.

"Oui," Luna added. "It is true. We went to the mall while you were away. I have my driver's license to drive in the United States. I rented a car so Angela and I can go do fun things."

"Well that explains that weird, random convertible in the driveway," Sam said. "I was _just_ going to ask about that! That's so nice of you, Luna. Anyway, I'm off to go count my money. You girls have fun!"

Angela and Luna heaved a sigh of relief as Sam slammed the front door.

"That was too close!" Luna squealed.

"I know!" Angela cried. "I can't believe Ace just left his stuff out here like that! Do you realize how much trouble we'll _both_ be in if Dad found out my friends were here?"

Ace walked out of Angela's room, his eyelids still heavy.

"Yous girls wanna keep it down?" Ace asked. "Some of us like to sleep in until noon."

"Ace, do you have _any_ idea how much trouble you could have gotten me into?" Angela snapped.

"Angie, I didn't do nothin!" Ace said defensively.

Angela picked up the wristbands and the shades off the sofa and put them in Ace's hands.

"You're lucky I told my dad these were mine," Angela said dangerously. "If you guys are caught here, I won't just be in trouble, but Luna will lose her job."

"Come on Angie, I just left my stuff lying around! It was never a big deal when you was livin' with us! Hell, you did it all the time!" Ace reminded her.

As Ace and Angela continued to bicker, Arturo could hear the commotion from Princess's room. Despite the fact that the room was basically a yellow nightmare, the bottom drawer of Princess's dresser was cleaned out to make a cozy make-shift bed. Here, he was content. Hearing his best friends argue though somehow left him even more satisfied. A devious grin curled up on his face, making his underbite look very prominent.

Finally, Angela sighed and said, "Look, I love having you guys over here. I really do. And I really missed being around you. But unless you want to get in deep shit, then you need to make it look like you're_ not_ here."

Ace said as he put his shades back on, "I'm sorry, Angie." His voice was riddled with sincere guilt. "How can ya ever forgive me?"

Angela giggled as Luna rolled her eyes. Luna said, "I'll leave you and your _caca_ _boudin_ alone." This made Angela laugh even more.

"Okay. He is _my_ genius after all," Angela said as she winked at Luna. The two girls giggled and Ace didn't bother to question why.

Later that night, Luna suggested that she and the rest of the gang go out and get some good booze with their fake IDs. However, since the convertible would only hold so many people, Angela volunteered to stay behind. It was a peaceful, rainy night. As much as Angela enjoyed having the company of her friends, she also liked having the guest cottage to herself to do as she pleased. And on this particular night, she was going to turn out the lights, crank up the music, and dance.

Angela took out the Edith Piaf CD that Luna played for Snake the night before and put in her copy of Alicia Keys' _Songs in A-Minor_. She flipped through the tracks until she came to "Rock Wit U". As the slow beat began, Angela began practicing her degages and jumps before moving gracefully across the black and white tile floor. The soulful voice of Alicia Keys began to fill the quiet house as the rain continued to gently fall outside.

Ace slowly appeared out from Angela's room, startling Angela as she stopped dancing.

"Ace, what're you doing?" Angela asked in shock. "I thought you went with everyone else to go get booze?"

"Whoa, they went to get booze without us?" Ace asked incredulously. "I took a nap this afternoon, and I guess they left me behind." He paused and added, "I don't mind though. Don't stop dancin' just 'cause I'm here. I like watching you move."

Angela stopped dancing for a moment as she looked Ace dead in the eyes. Everything about this moment seemed absolutely perfect to Angela: the falling of the rain, a quiet, dark house, the most romantic song she could think of, and the guy who had her heart.

"Come with me," Angela said, as she grabbed Ace's hand and they disappeared into the bedroom together. Her response from Ace was one of surprise. Angela didn't even bother turning off the stereo.

"Angie, you sure this is what you want?" Ace asked. He could hardly contain his own excitement.

"I know I said I didn't want to do it before, but now I'm surer than I've ever been in my entire life," Angela said.

She turned and locked the door as she motioned for Ace to sit on the bed next to her. Angela allowed Ace to take off her dress. She leaned in and kissed him with more passion than she ever remembered possessing within her at any given point in her life. He wrapped his arms around her. His hands inched towards her chest. She pulled away for a brief moment and shut off the light on her nightstand.

As the song faded out, the black convertible pulled into the driveway, yet no one in the convertible bothered to ask what could possibly being going on inside.

The next morning, Ace was lying next to Angela, just as he had done before. But this time felt very different. Outside, the rain still continued, not as heavily as it had the night before, but it was peaceful. The sky was still a dark, grey shadow.

Angela couldn't wrap her head around what had happened the night before. Did it really happen? Did she really agree to it? No, she didn't just agree to it, she _started_ it. What she did the night before went against everything (more accurately, what little) she had been taught about love. She'd been told time and time again she was too young to really be in love. She knew it wasn't right. So why did it _feel_ right?

Her heart felt very full, like it would threaten to explode from this new wave of emotions. She wasn't quite sure what to expect next.

One thing was for sure, she _definitely_ wasn't expecting an angry rapping on her door.

Ace moaned in annoyance.

"Can ya keep it down?" He groaned. "I'm tryina sleep here!"

"Shhh!" Angela urged. "Keep it down and stay in here. I'll be right back."

Angela crept out of bed. But Ace wouldn't let her answer to the annoying banging on the door.

"Come on Angie, stay with me, will ya?" Ace begged. "The bed's too big without you."

"I promise I'll come back," Angela swore as she tugged on her nightgown. "Just let me do this real quick."

Angela walked as quietly as she could out of her room, shutting the door behind her. She swallowed hard and answered the front door. There stood her mother, looking absolutely furious. Angela forgot that this was the day her mother was coming back from her vacation.

"Do you have _any_ idea how angry with you I am?" Penelope demanded. "Sit down."

Angela sat down on the flame-painted sofa as her mother towered over her and stared at her furiously.

"You've been _screwing_ around!" Penelope said fiercely.

_Oh shit_, Angela panicked as her body went rigid with fear. _How'd she find out about last night?_

"I saw your last report card," Penelope said angrily. "An 'F' in English?! You _speak_ English! This is _not_ an excuse!"

Angela heaved a sigh of relief as the world jumped off her shoulders. If she was going to get yelled at by her mother today, she didn't care what it was as long as her mother didn't find out about the night before.

"Me fail English?" Angela asked. "That's _unpossible_!"

"I don't need your smart remarks today, young lady," Penelope fumed. "You're going to get your grades back up, and in order to do that, your father and I called the school and asked them to lift your punishments. We believe your school is failing you."

"My school is failing _me_?" Angela asked in confusion. "Does this mean that school has to go to Summer Angela?"

"Enough!" Penelope barked. "You are to go back to school and you are to bring your grades up! Do you hear me?"

"Yes, Mom," Angela said in a docile manner as her gaze fell to the floor.

"Also, I came here to say while I was away, I met the owner of Cityville Motors. He has a son who is about your age that you might want to meet," Penelope added, her tone softening.

"Oh God, if he's gonna be some smarmy, uptight, annoying rich kid with a fake tan, I'm _not_ interested," Angela protested. She didn't care _what _this new guy looked like. Angela knew no one could replace her devious, green-skinned rogue in her affections. No one at all.

"Will you _please_ quit testing me?" Penelope fumed. "I swear, one of these days, you're going to be the death of me. Anyway, this guy is named James. I've arranged for you to have tea with him next weekend." She paused and added, "I _promise_ you'll be happy. And even if you're not, there's more to life than that. Don't ask me what!"

"Fine!" Angela groaned. "I'll meet this kid if you'll stop quoting _Fiddler on the Roof_!"

"Anyway," Penelope said with an air of sophistication and coldness, "I'm going to get my nails done. Enjoy the rest of your morning."

Penelope left the guest cottage and Angela sighed with relief. She walked back into her room where Ace was waiting patiently for her.

"What was that about?" Ace asked.

"Nothing important," Angela sighed. She smiled as she curled up next to him.


	11. Scenes from a Restaurant in Cityville

**SuperSailorCharon: Here's the chapter paying homage to my all-time favorite artist, Billy Joel! I was watching the episode Meet the Beat-Alls and I got the idea for this! I've made so many references here, too many to mention in this disclaimer (and there are three more chapters after this that's just a bunch of Billy Joel references since they won't all fit in this chapter). I do not own any Billy Joel songs, so if Sony Music wants to get on my ass, just consider this as free advertising for the most amazing artist there is! I own nothing except for Angela and Luna. Enjoy!**

It was a grey, rainy morning, just a few days after Angela and Ace indulged themselves in a night of passion. Angela, Luna, Ace, and Snake sat around the chrome table drinking coffee and deciding what they should do that day as Angela's spring break was almost over.

"Anyone know what time it is?" Ace asked.

"It's nine o'clock on a Saturday," Angela told him. "We should figure out something fun to do today. Because today I'm living as a rich man's daughter, and tomorrow morning I could be a bum."

"Uh, Angie, you _lived_ with us for two months," Ace reminded her. "You practically was a bum."

"And what do we do on a day like this?" Luna asked uncertainly. "There is a lot of rain today."

"I do not mindssss the falling of the rainsssss," Snake said.

"We could go to The Parkway Diner in downtown Cityville," Angela suggested. "The only problem is that it's kinda far meaning we'll have to take the convertible."

"Will we all fit into the convertible?" Luna asked uncertainly.

"Someone will have to ride in the trunkssss," Snake said.

"Hey, if we don't have a car, we'll hitch!" Ace said. "I got a thumb, and she's a son of a bitch."

"Worst comes to worst, we'll get along," Angela agreed. "I don't know how, but sometimes we can be strong."

"We are not hitchhiking!" Luna said in disgust.

"I don't mind riding in the trunkssss of the convertible," Snake said.

"Awesome!" Angela cried. "Let's go get the others and go to The Parkway Diner!"

To Angela, a day out with her friends is not a day out without an opportunity for mischief, so she stuffed whatever pranking items she had left into her purse and promised herself a trip to the joke store later.

After Luna neatly folded up Snake's spindly body and placed him gently in the trunk of the convertible, the rest of the gang and their female friends hopped in and drove off, and despite the rain, they were riding around with the car top down and the radio on.

The radio was playing "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" by Billy Joel as Grubber sped off down the streets of the busy city before getting the gang stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

"Aw man, don't tell me this is the only radio station in Cityville!" Ace complained.

"It's still rock and roll to me," Angela said with a shrug of her shoulders. Ace groaned in annoyance as his girlfriend sang along at the top of her lungs. The rain continued to fall and Grubber pushed the button to put the roof of the convertible up.

After sitting in traffic for half an hour, the vehicles on the road slowly began to creep forward.

"Just keep going," Angela said to Grubber. "I'll tell you where to turn. It's on 52nd Street."

The hunchbacked driver blew a raspberry in response.

Grubber finally parked in front of a 50's-style diner. The gang hopped out and went inside to get a table while Luna walked around to the back of the car and popped open the trunk.

"I wassss sssstuck there for the longesssst time," Snake groaned.

"I am sorry, Snake," Luna said ruefully as Snake crawled out of the trunk and stretched his legs. He seemed uncomfortable after sitting in a tight space for so long.

"I do not mindssss," Snake said. "I go to extremessss to make you happy."

Luna smiled and laughed warmly.

"Let us go inside," Luna said as they disappeared into the restaurant to escape the pouring rain. They found their friends sitting at a nearby booth.

"We've been waitin' here forever!" Ace complained. "Is someone gonna take our order?"

"That's why they're called _waiters_," Angela reminded him.

A gawky teenager with curly red hair clumsily glided over to the booth on roller skates. Angela rubbed her hands together deviously as the boy nervously took the gang's orders.

"Damn, you'd think that you'd be faster on those stupid skates," Ace said as the waiter was halfway in the middle of taking his order. "I'll have a hamburger and fries."

"I'll have the same," Angela said, trying to hide the mischievous grin on her face.

The teenager gulped nervously as he went around the table jotting down everyone's orders on his note pad. When he came to Big Billy, Billy smiled and laughed excitedly as he picked up the menu. He pointed to a picture of an eight-pound breakfast burrito smothered in chili.

"I want this!" Big Billy cried excitedly.

"Sir, that's part of our Big Burrito Challenge," the teenager explained uneasily. "You have to eat the whole burrito in under an hour. Two hundred people have taken the challenge and only three have succeeded."

"What does the winner of the challenge get?" Lil Arturo asked.

"The winner gets a t-shirt and two hundred dollars," the teenager replied. "Plus, their entire check is on us."

Ace's eyes widened beneath his shades upon hearing the amount of prize money that would be involved. He grinned deviously.

"Come on Big Billy!" Ace urged. "You're the best eater we know! You'd win that contest, no problem!"

"Big Billy wanna eat a big burrito!" Big Billy laughed excitedly.

"I'll bring the rest of your orders out first and then we'll start the challenge," the gawky teenager said nervously.

While they waited, Angela noticed out on the checkered dance floor where the jukebox usually was, there was something very different in its place. Instead of the jukebox, there was a guy who greatly resembled Billy Joel during his "Piano Man" days playing a piano. There was a sign on the piano that read:

OUR JUKEBOX IS CURRENTLY IN THE REPAIR SHOP. PLEASE ENJOY THE MUSIC OF THIS LOCAL ARTIST. SINCERELY, THE MANAGEMENT.

Angela had a great idea for a prank, but her attention was soon turned to the food that the waiter on roller skates brought over. He was soon followed by two other waiters carrying the giant platter that had the eight pound burrito. The owner of the restaurant walked out and cupped his hands into a megaphone

"MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!?" The owner yelled, grabbing the attention of everyone in the restaurant. The piano player stopped playing and gave his attention, too. The owner motioned at Big Billy. "THIS YOUNG MAN IS TAKING ON THE BIG BURRITO CHALLENGE!"

The other restaurant patrons applauded as the owner explained the rules. Big Billy stared hungrily at the ginormous breakfast burrito smothered in chilli.

"You may begin in three, two," the owner began to count down. Just as he was about to ring the bell to signal the start of the challenge, Big Billy picked up the platter, dumped the burrito in his mouth, and devoured the whole thing in one bite. The entire restaurant stared in dead silence as Big Billy let out a huge belch.

"Oh. My. God," the owner gasped as everyone's jaw hung open. "That's got to be the fastest I'd ever seen anyone finish the challenge."

The silence in the room suddenly erupted into applause.

"Congratulations kid!" The owner said as he walked over to shake the behemoth teenager's hand. "What's your name?"

"Big Billy!" Billy said in his usual, absent-minded glee.

"Let's hear it for Billy the Kid!" The owner cried.

While the crowds continued to congratulate Big Billy, Angela slipped away from the crowds and excused herself to the restroom. When she came out five minutes later, she noticed that the restaurant had returned to business as usual. Her eyes zoomed in on the waiter with the roller skates and Angela was glad she remembered her plastic bag of marbles. As he clumsily crept by, Angela discreetly opened her bag and carefully shook it out so that the marbles fell out onto the floor. The waiter, who was carrying two strawberry milkshakes, slipped and fell facedown. When he tried to help himself back up, his face was as pink as the stains on the floor. Angela cupped her hands over her mouth to stifle a giggle. She walked back over to the booth where her friends, who saw the waiter fall, were laughing hysterically. Angela noticed that Big Billy was wearing the "I Survived the Big Burrito Challenge" t-shirt. Despite the fact that it was the largest size possible, it still fit awkwardly, exposing his massive, green inner tube-like stomach.

"All righty, Angie, you ready to go?" Ace asked through his laughter.

The piano man got up from his piano bench and put a sign on his piano that read "WILL RETURN IN FIVE MINUTES". Angela's brain hatched another idea for trouble.

"Hold on a second," Angela said. "Let's not leave yet. I got a really good idea."

Angela took a whoopee cushion out of her purse.

"What're we gonna do with that?" Lil Arturo asked as his interest heightened.

"This thing has a microphone inside it," Angela explained as she giggled. "It's gonna be really good when the guy playing the piano comes back."

Quickly, Angela walked over to the bench and placed the whoopee cushion on it. She hurried back to the booth before anyone could catch on to what she just did.

"Can we go now?" Big Billy asked impatiently. "Big Billy no feel good!"

"Neither would I after eating something like that," Luna said dryly.

"Let's just wait five more minutes," Angela promised. "And then we can go home."

But Big Billy's massive stomach began to churn and gurgle in discomfort. As a business man walked by with a lighter, trying to light his tobacco pipe as he hurried into the smoking section, Big Billy just couldn't hold it in anymore. He let out an explosive fart that, in combination with the flame from the lighter, blackened the business man into a charred pile of dust with blinking eyes. The flames shot out towards the piano as it burnt to the ground.

"Oh shit," Angela murmured. "That wasn't part of the prank."

The owner hurried in with a fire extinguisher and put out the flames.

"It's a good thing I got here when I did," the owner said with relief. "But I guess there won't be any more music for a while until we get the jukebox fixed. I had a feeling hiring live music was a bad idea." The owner walked away and the piano man hurried in. When he saw what became of his beloved piano he cried out in horror and rage.

"WHO LIT MY PIANO ON FIRE?!" He demanded.

"Not me, I'm an innocent man," Arturo said quickly in an attempt to clear his name.

"We didn't start the fire!" Ace added. "It was always' burnin'!"

Angela gave Ace a scolding look and said, "You had to be a big shot, didn't ya? You had to open up your mouth!"

The piano man got down on his knees and wept for the loss of his prized instrument.

"Let's get outta here," Ace said. "This is just getting' awkward."

As the Gangrene Gang and Luna headed out to the convertible and began discussing what they were going to do with the prize money Big Billy won in the Big Burrito Challenge, Angela walked over to the sobbing piano man and looked at him with pity. She took out her wallet and gave him several hundred dollar bills.

"I don't know if this will be enough to totally cover a new piano," Angela began, "but that wasn't supposed to happen. I'm sorry."

The piano man looked up and took the money hesitantly from Angela's hands. He stared at the money for a long, long time. When he looked up again to thank the teenage girl, she was gone.

"That's why I'm keepin' the faith," he said out loud to himself as he pocketed the money.


	12. James

**SuperSailorCharon: So here's the next chapter in the Billy Joel parody trio. I do not own James by Billy Joel or any other Billy Joel songs I make references to here. I do not own The Powerpuff Girls or The Gangrene Gang. Luna and Angela are MY property as well as the rest of the OCs. **

Over the next week, Angela went back to school. While she was in school, Luna tried her hardest to make sure the guest cottage stayed clean and The Gangrene Gang stayed out of sight. But on Friday afternoon, when Angela came back from school, Luna hardly looked like she was working.

The limo dropped Angela off in front of the guest cottage. The moment she opened the door, she saw Luna and Snake sitting together on the flame embellished sofa making out.

"Ewww! Get a room!" Angela shrieked as Snake and Luna recoiled in surprise.

"Do you not know when to leave a tender moment alone?" Luna asked defensively.

"Come on Luna, let'ssssss go getsssss a room of our own," Snake said as he and Luna got up off the sofa and disappeared into Luna's room, closing the door behind them. As soon as the door closed, Angela could hear Luna speaking in French. Luna had tried to teach Angela a little bit of French, but this was completely new to her:

"C'etait toi. C'etait toi," Luna repeated amorously.

Silence fell as a rapping on the front door echoed the guest cottage. Angela sighed; the house was a mess. Muddy boot prints all over the floor, Twinkie wrappers and soda bottles strewn in strategic places around the room, and even dirty hand prints all over the ceiling. Angela wasn't sure how they got there, but she would have to somehow explain herself. She opened the front door to answer to her impatient mother.

"Angela, I…" Penelope began before she stared at the room. She gasped in horror at the mess. "Angela Morbucks!" She shrieked. "What has gotten into you?! This is unacceptable!"

"Mom, please, I," Angela stammered.

"Young lady, where's Luna? I need to have a word with her as I don't believe she's doing her job correctly," Penelope fumed.

"Mom, it's okay," Angela quickly explained. "I told Luna she could take a few days off and I would try to keep on top of cleaning the guest cottage after school!"

Penelope put her hands on Angela's shoulders and looked her squarely in the eye. She lowered her voice dangerously.

"We may have hired that girl to be your friend," Penelope said fiercely. "But at the end of the day she works for _us_ on _our_ property and follows _our_ rules." Angela gulped nervously.

"Now, I came here to remind you that you're having tea tomorrow with the young man I set you up with," Penelope said. "That's an order, not a request." Angela fought not to roll her eyes but Penelope could almost read her mind. "Don't give me that attitude, young lady. Can you have Luna help you pick something suitable for you to wear?"

"Yes mom," Angela grumbled. She wasn't in the mood to meet this guy, but what choice did she have? She would probably have to suffer several unbearable hours with some spoiled rich guy who was way too clean-cut and was probably about as exciting to talk to as a piece of dryer lint.

"I'll have Lionel bring the limo over here to pick you up tomorrow at noon," Penelope said flatly. She didn't say anything else; she shut the front door of the guest cottage leaving Angela alone with her nerves and her annoyance.

Ace quietly walked out of Angela's room where he'd been watching TV and eating junk food most of the day. Angela was afraid to go into her room in fear of the mess that was probably there.

"What was that about, babe?" Ace asked.

Angela thought about jumping down Ace's throat about how messy the house was and how she got in trouble with her mom. But it wasn't really _her_ that was in trouble. Her mom was mad at Luna. And it wasn't Luna's fault the house was a mess. It was hard to clean up after five guys. But something had to be done or Penelope would suspect something was amiss.

No, there was only one method to deal with this situation: honesty

"Please don't be mad at me," Angela said. Ace looked her in the eyes waiting for what she was going to say. "My mother wants to set me up with some rich kid hoping I'd marry him and both our families would end up with a shit ton of money and security and all that crap. She thinks it's easy money."

"Angie, babe, what're you talkin' about?" Ace asked. His tone changed and he started to sound defensive.

"Look, there's no one else I want but you," Angela assured him. "You can make me free. I promise you nothing will happen. Mom just wants me to go meet up with this kid tomorrow. I haven't even met him and I'm not interested in him!"

"So wait, you're gonna go see some other guy?" Ace asked defensively. "Behind my back?!"

"It's not like that!" Angela said.

"How do I know you're not gonna come back tomorrow afternoon and tell me it's over?" Ace asked.

"Ace, I'm not that kind of girl! I love you," Angela whispered. "It's a matter of trust. Don't you trust me?"

"You cleaned Arturo's stupid comb-thingy," Ace reminded her. "_No one_ touches his comb."

"Ace, I was just doing him a favor because he helped me with Luna and Snake's date! It's not like that! I don't have feelings for Arturo at all!"

There was silence between them counted in each simultaneous beat of their hearts.

"Angie, you can have any guy you want," Ace said. "You're great, but sometimes I wonder what a girl like you wants with a guy like me." He paused and added, "I don't want to be alone. How do I know you're not gonna leave me just because I don't got a lot of money? How do I know that this one-time thing ain't gonna happen more often with this guy?"

Angela's eyes brimmed with tears. Ace hadn't been this vulnerable with her since the night they were stranded on the plains together in a blizzard.

"Ace, I said I love you and that's forever," Angela promised. "And this I promise from the heart. I could not love you any better. I love you just the way you are."

Ace took Angela in his arms and they kissed as passionately as they ever had before.

Later that night, Grubber, Big Billy, and Lil Arturo were in Princess's room, sleeping with the television on. Grubber began to dream he was in the middle of a jungle. He blew a confused raspberry as he took in his dreamscape surroundings: the lush trees, the sounds of the jungle birds and mysterious creatures lurking in the lush vegetation, and the feel of the moss between his green, cracked feet. The cool jungle air was nice and cool. Grubber decided to walk for a little while and explore his surroundings. Eventually, Grubber came to a river. It was loud and roaring and clear as crystal. Of course, the rushing water reminded Grubber that he didn't visit the bathroom before bed. So he untied the rope that held up his ragged burlap pants and relieved himself in the river.

The next day, at a little before noon, everyone else was still asleep except for Luna who crept out of bed to brush her teeth. Her tired eyes immediately became more alert when she noticed the marble sink was tinted yellow. She screamed in horror which woke up everyone.

"Who peed in the sink?" Luna demanded as she flew out of the bathroom standing there in nothing but a baby blue negligee. "That is disgusting!"

Lil Arturo rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he lay awake in the drawer. He looked over at Grubber, who flew off the bed in alarm.

"Did you have that river dream again, Grubber?" Lil Arturo asked. Grubber shook his head defensively and blew several raspberries.

"I do not have time for this!" Luna cried out in frustration. "I have to help Angela get ready to meet that boy!"

"Don't bother! I'm on my way out the door!" Angela hurriedly said. She was wearing a light pink baby doll dress. She carried her purse and was about to run out the door to catch her limo which was waiting outside.

"Wait!" Luna screeched. "You're not wearing any shoes!"

"Oh shit," Angela muttered as she raced back into her room. Carrying her glittery pink tap shoes she flew out the front door with bare feet. Lionel helped her into the limo as she tugged on her shoes. Lionel drove off down the street as Angela stared at herself in the rearview mirror in disgust. She took her brush out of her purse and tried to tame her wild brown curls, but with little luck.

A few miles later, Lionel stopped at the Cityville Palace in Downtown Cityville. The chauffer helped her out of the limo as Angela stared up at the tall brick building. She hated Downtown Cityville and wouldn't want to be down here at night without her friends.

She stepped through the revolving door. The inside of the Cityville Palace was a welcome shelter from the harsh stares and cold streets of Downtown Cityville. She walked over to the tea room which was decorated to look like a Victorian-era tea room. The host smiled at her.

"You are Angela Morbucks?" He confirmed. Angela nodded nervously. She loved the tea room, but she just wanted to get this over with. "Right this way," the host said politely as he led her over to a table set for two. He pulled out the chair for Angela to sit down.

"It's not quite twelve thirty," the host said. "So I would wait another ten minutes or so for Mr. Yamamoto to show up if I were you."

Angela's mother usually didn't send her to the tea room by herself to fix her up with possible suitors; instead, Penelope usually introduced Angela to these young men through parties. And they were always the same: tall, ripped, blonde, usually with a varsity letter or two. Or three. They were usually a few years older than her and had lavish luxury cars. All they talked about was how much money their parents' companies were making or how their latest success on the football field. Angela giggled to herself. Her mother set her up last time with a guy named Nick, whom Angela secretly dubbed "Debbie Downer" because he always complained about everything from how he couldn't afford the dolphin tank he wanted to how his tennis coach yelled at him. This guy was probably going to be no different.

A guy about two years older than herself was led over to the table by the host. Angela's eyes widened in surprise when she saw who was soon seated across from her.

Physically, he was the exact opposite of everything Angela was used to. He was slender, and not very tall. In fact, Angela guessed that if she were to stand up, she would be able to look him in the eye. He was tan. Naturally tan. Not like that fake, gross orange tan that most of the other guys had. He had brown, almond-shaped eyes and thick, shiny black hair.

_On a scale of one to ten, this guy's about a nine. Maybe nine and a half,_ Angela grinned to herself.

"I'm guessing you're Angela?" James asked.

Angela didn't realize she'd been staring at him, when she quickly said nervously, "Oh yes, hi, I'm Angela." She held out her hand for him to shake and then added, "My friends call me Angie."

_Dammit Angela, _Angela scolded herself. _You only get one first impression so get it right the first time! _

"I like that," James said with a smile.

A waitress brought over a pot of black tea and a tray of finger sandwiches as Angela stared at James for a long time, trying to think of something to say.

"So uh, your folks own Cityville Motors?" Angela said awkwardly, in an attempt to break the ice. She took a sip of her black tea and tried to hide the pained expression on her face when she realized it was still too hot to drink.

"Yeah," James replied. "Actually, my dad's hoping that when I graduate in a few weeks, I'll go off to school and major in business so I can take over the company."

"Do you want to?" Angela asked.

"Not really," James said, his eyes looking down for a moment. "I can think of a few other things I really want to do."

"Like what?" Angela asked with heightened intrigue.

James paused and then said, "I like to build stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"I like to build robots."

Angela grinned. So far, this guy was nothing at all like the other guys her parents introduced her to. She wondered if her mother was having a major lapse of judgment when she set this date up.

"That's actually really cool," Angela said in admiration.

"You think so?" James asked with a smile. "Most of the girls my parents try to set me up with usually laugh at me and call me a nerd."

"It's better to be a nerd than some shallow jerk who only cares about the number of sports trophies they have and believes the most complicated decision they have to make is whether or not to buy a Ferrari or a Porsche!" Angela laughed. Her face flushed in an all-too-familiar way, but the conversation was moving too quickly to stop herself. "I think it's really cool that you like to build robots!"

"Yeah. Usually when I'm at the dealership, there's nothing better than going into the garage, locking the door, and seeing what I can do with whatever spare parts are lying around," James told her.

"You should totally show me some time!" Angela chirped with excitement.

"I'd really like to, if you're interested," James said. "My parents think it's a pointless hobby."

"No, it's not pointless," Angela said. "It's interesting!"

"So what is it that you like to do for fun?" James asked. "I feel like I'm monopolizing the conversation."

"Well I didn't laugh at you, so you better promise not to laugh at me. I like to play pranks on people with my friends," Angela admitted. James grinned.

"Hey, it's nice you have a sense of humor," he told her.

"Most of the people I know don't," Angela said, her tone becoming more serious and frantic. "My parents want me to grow up and start thinking about trying to find a rich guy with a lot of money and Dad's freaking out because he doesn't think I'll marry anyone fit to inherit his oil company and he thinks I'll end up being the Last of the Big Spenders and wind up living in No Man's Land."

There was a silence between them. James finally said with a sparkle in his eyes, "You know what it's like."

"I do," Angela said. She looked up at him and asked, "Do you?"

"You mean what it's like to be under the pressure of your parents' expectations?" James asked. "I'm not ready to have a relationship, let alone settle down with anyone and it's almost like my parents are trying to pawn me off."

"Bingo," Angela grinned. She paused before asking, "Do you really think it's fair that our parents are pretty much selling us to each other?"

"That's how you look at it too?" James mused.

"Definitely," Angela nodded.

"Well what do we tell them? They're going to want to know if we like each other and if they don't they'll just set us up with someone else again, and I'm tired of spending my time with really bitchy girls," James said.

Angela thought for a moment. She really liked James. But she pretty much swore herself to Ace. She'd seen conflicting decisions like this on television, but as an oddball girl, she never suspected that she would have to face a decision like this in her life.

"We tell them we like each other and then they'll keep setting us up on dates," Angela suggested. "But you and I will only see each other as friends and nothing more. If they try to get us to marry each other, we'll…" she paused for a moment, "we'll figure it out when it comes."

"You got it," James agreed.

Of course, one thing was for sure, they did enjoy each other's company. So much so that James asked Angela for her phone number. As Angela reached into her purse to pull out a pen and a piece of paper, she unknowingly pulled out a banana wrapped in a condom. Her face turned beet red as James burst out laughing.

"Oh my God," Angela murmured in humiliation. "I swear, I'm gonna find out which of my friends did this and I'm gonna kill them."

"I take it your friends like playing pranks almost as much as you do," James said through his laughter. "Come on, it's funny!"

Eventually, Angela ended up laughing right along with him.

Meanwhile, back in the guest cottage of Soaring Swine Acres, Arturo sat at the chrome table eating cookies while Luna washed the dishes. The other guys were having a video game tournament in Angela's room, and since there were only four controllers, Arturo said he didn't mind waiting his turn.

"These cookies are really good," Arturo said with a smile. "Gracias."

"Why are you thanking me? I did not make them," Luna reminded him. "You bought them at the store yesterday."

"Oh," Arturo said sheepishly.

"Quit being awkward," Luna laughed. "You said you had a question to ask me?"

"How do you talk to someone you really like?" Arturo asked.

"Let me see, you like a girl and you do not know how to tell her," Luna mused as she dried a plate.

"Yeah," Arturo said, trying not to sound clueless. He was the youngest member of the gang, and when it came to how to talk to girls, his age really showed.

"Just tell her about it," Luna told him, wondering why he was asking her this. "Tell her everything you feel. Give her every reason to accept that you're for real." She paused and added, "Why are you asking these questions?"

Just then, Angela walked through the front door.

"Is Ace here?" Angela asked.

"Oui, he is," Luna told her. "You know where to find him."

As Angela disappeared into the chaos of her room, it suddenly dawned on Luna why Arturo was asking her how to approach girls.

**Author's Note: Originally, James was supposed to be a nameless throwaway character and nothing more. However, I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to develop his character because the song "James" is about a man who wasted his life conforming to his family's expectations. For this story, I wasn't sure what James should be like. The other day when I was watching Mythbusters, I took one look at Grant Imahara (whom, in my opinion, is gorgeous!) and found my inspiration. **


	13. We Didn't Start the Prank War

**Jordalicious: I do not own any of the Billy Joel songs I reference in this chapter. Just as a reminder for those that are getting tired of the Billy Joel jokes, this is the LAST chapter in the Billy Joel chapter trio. I also do not own The Powerpuff Girls, **_**Forrest Gump**_**, Burger King, Pizza Hut, or Dairy Queen. **

A week after Angela's first meeting with James went by and when Angela wasn't in school, her mother insisted that all of her free time be spent with him. Saturday afternoon, Angela was scheduled to go have lunch with James. That is, until Penelope burst through the door of the guest cottage. The Gangrene Gang remained out of sight and Luna made herself look busy by vacuuming the floors. The sound drowned out the television playing in Angela's room.

"It's good to see you're making yourself useful, Luna," Penelope pointed out. "And to think I wanted to have you deported."

"I'll pretend you didn't say that," Angela muttered.

"Anyway, James called," Penelope said, ignoring Angela's smart remark. "He wanted to have lunch with you this afternoon, but his school's math-a-thon team made it to the finals in Washington DC, so he'll be gone for two weeks. I'm _so_ sorry to disappoint you."

"Oh," Angela said flatly. "I was looking forward to seeing him."

"I know, dear," Penelope sympathized. "Anyway, I've got tennis this afternoon. Call my cell if you need anything."

And with that, Penelope was gone.

"Nice cover," Luna said as she shut off the vacuum. "It was brilliant pretending to be disappointed that you couldn't see James today."

"It was kinda how we planned it," Angela explained. "James and I agreed we were going to pretend to be interested in each other just so we could still see each other and our parents would stop setting us up with obnoxious people."

"Do you think it is fair to do that to him?" Luna asked.

"It is if he agreed to it," Angela replied. "It's just a minor variation in the plans that our parents have for us. Nobody knows but us and we cannot handle pressure."

"I do not think it's so minor at all," Luna said. "But cest la vie."

"Anyway, we should go do something fun for the afternoon," Angela suggested. "I wish we could say goodbye to Cityville, because I'm in a Townsville state of mind."

"I know, but we have to stay within the city limits. We could go shopping," Luna suggested.

"Well, the mall _is_ a good place to go have fun," Angela said deviously. Luna could see the mischievous smile creep up on Angela's face and began to match her expression.

"I have an idea," Luna said. "Go get the others and let's go out."

Angela threw open her bedroom door where Snake, Big Billy, Lil Arturo, and Ace were all playing video games. Angela's room was a horrible mess with candy wrappers, pizza boxes, ice cream containers, and soda bottles strewn all over the place. "All right! Everyone out!" Angela announced. "We're going to cause mayhem and chaos down at the Cityville Mall!"

The green adolescents spilled out of Angela's room and piled into the car.

"Where is Grubber?" Luna asked. She stood at the front door with her purse in hand, ready to leave. "I could drive, but we really can't go anywhere without him."

"Good question," Angela said, realizing that their raspberry-blowing friend was not among them. "You go out to the car. I'll go find Grubber."

Angela looked through the few rooms of the guest cottage and finally found Grubber plopped down on Princess's bed watching _Forrest Gump _on the plasma screen TV.

"This is a good movie," Angela said. Grubber nodded and blew a raspberry in agreement. "By the way, Jenny dies. Now come on, we're going shopping." Angela picked the remote off of the nightstand and flicked off the TV. She left the room and headed out to the convertible as Grubber still lay there on the bed looking dumbfounded.

Half an hour later, the two girls and their green associates walked the corridors of the Cityville Mall as people stopped and stared. Angela didn't seem to notice; instead, she and Luna were conspiring random ideas for ways to prank people. The gang had all split up and madness had ensued. Big Billy was causing massive collateral damage by tripping up the down escalators. Ace was standing at the bottom of the down escalators yelling, "Oh no! My shoelaces!" in mock distress as people stopped and attempted to come to his rescue. As they were "assisting" him, Ace picked their pockets before speeding up the escalator. Lil Arturo went into an upscale department store with several go-gurt pouches. He hid in one of the clothes racks. Every time someone walked past the rack, Arturo squirted the by-passer with go-gurt as it shot out like a cannon. Grubber was riding the merry-go-round using coins that he fished out of the wishing well. Snake had gone into the candy store and began rummaging around the jelly bean bins. When the salesperson told him to leave, Snake said insistently," Ssssssir, I losssssst my contact lensssssss."

As for Angela and Luna, Angela had taken Luna into a costume shop and dressed her up like Marie Antoinette. Together, they went into the food court where Angela watched as Luna walked up to the cashier working at Dairy Queen. The cashier, a zit-faced teen, looked too stoned out of his mind to care.

"Excuse moi," Luna began. "What year is this?"

"Uh…" the cashier stammered awkwardly. "Some time in the 2000s."

"It _worked_!" Luna cried at the top of her lungs. "The time machine _worked_!"

Angela and Luna then walked towards the ATM machine. They walked past Snake who was in front of the Burger King stomping on ketchup packets as several of the food court patrons cleared out in disgust. Lil Arturo soon joined Snake as he sucked down a go-gurt packet while Snake lapped up some ketchup from one of the packets that he didn't step on.

"What in the _world_ are you boys _doing_?" Asked a horrified shopper. This particular shopper appeared to be one of those upper-class women who were usually draped in diamonds and pearls. With her was her husband, a well-dressed businessman. "Eddie, darling," the woman said to her husband, "something's terribly wrong with these boys! One of them is eating straight _ketchup_ for heaven's sake!"

"We're eating astronaut food!" Lil Arturo cried.

"Let's go, Brenda," the woman's husband said in disgust. "This mall attracts the _tackiest _people!"

Ace was continuing to pick random people's pockets when he stopped outside a jewelry store and caught sight of a beautiful pearl necklace in the display window.. He sighed and thought about Angela.

"My uptown girl. I can't afford to buy her pearls," Ace thought to himself out loud. Then he snapped his fingers and realized who he was. "Wait a minute, what the hell am I sayin'?" He then walked in, tied up the guy behind the counter, and took the pearls off the display before fleeing the store.

Over at the ATM machine, Angela punched in her pin number and took out forty dollars. As the machine dispensed the crisp twenty dollar bills, Angela yelled at the top of her lungs, "Woo hoo! I won! I _won_!"

Nearby, Big Billy was causing even more collateral damage by repetitively falling facedown into the entrance to The Gap as people flooded out of the store screaming at the sight of a giant green freak.

"Big Billy fall into the gap!" Big Billy shouted with an unintelligible laugh.

Ace was next door at the pet shop shaving the cats. The owner only threw him out after Ace had taught the parrots all sorts of naughty words, thus rendering them unsellable. Shoppers walked past the store to the sound of parrots squawking, "Fuck you, dumbass! Squawk! Fuck you, dumbass!"

People were screaming and running around in all directions, especially when Angela disappeared into a crowded glass elevator. As the elevator lifted up towards the higher floors of the mall, Angela couldn't resist a moment to break the silence. She said in a quiet, eerie voice, "Do you hear that ticking noise?" As soon as the elevator doors opened, people flooded out of the elevator screaming. Ace caught up with Angela and the two of them darted behind a door that read "Employees Only" where the two of them were faced with the mall's speaker system that played the music that the shoppers could hear as they walked through the mall. Angela took a CD out of her purse and put it in the CD player before she hit the play button. "Sometimes a Fantasy" by Billy Joel began playing throughout the mall.

"Out of all the songs you picked, you had to pick this one," Ace said as he shook his head in annoyance.

"Why not?" Angela grinned. "This song's about phone sex!"

"This song is about phone sex?" Ace asked.

"Geez, for someone who's super one-track minded, you're a little clueless," Angela scoffed. "Now let's see how many people we can get to join us in a conga line!"

Surprisingly, those still in the mall who hadn't been frightened away by the random antics of the gang did indeed end up joining the conga line. With Angela in the front of the line, she took the conga line down the stairs and out the front door into the streets where more and more random people joined the conga line.

The pinch-faced mayor of Cityville happened to be uptown riding in his limousine when he noticed the conga line. The mayor was furious.

"_What the hell is going on_?!" He fumed to no one in particular. "Don't those people know it's illegal to have a parade in Cityville without a permit?! Just think of all the massive collateral damage they'll cause and all the money it'll cost to fix it!" He whipped out his cell phone and dialed a few numbers. "Yes, this is the mayor. Get me Sergeant O'Leary or Captain Jack on the phone."

Ten minutes later, several squad cars appeared as the conga line proceeded up the streets.

"Cityville police! Break it up! Now!" Shouted Sergeant O'Leary into the megaphone. Some people left the conga line, but most of the members refused. Sergeant O'Leary put down the megaphone and picked up a handset where he said, "Bring out the tear gas. Fire on my command."

The air began to fill with tear gas as people disbursed in all directions, running for their lives, screaming in horror with their faces screaming. Angela felt someone grab her by the shoulders and yank her away.

"Angela!" Luna screamed. Luna coughed and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Luna! Take the guys home!" Angela shouted back as her voice cut sharply through the gas. "I'll take all the blame! It'll be okay!"

Luna didn't seem at all convinced, but she disappeared into the crowd in an attempt to hunt down the gang.

Angela rode anxiously in the back of the squad car. Sergeant O'Leary finally said, "Don't worry Miss Morbucks. We'll find whoever started the conga line. You're safe now. Your parents were informed. They're waiting for you."

Wait a second, couldn't they see that she was in the _front_ of the conga line. How could Sergeant O'Leary not see that? Instead, Angela decided to play along.

"I got separated from my assistant," Angela said in mock worry. "Do you know if she got out okay?"

"She's all right, I'm sure," Sergeant O'Leary responded warmly. "Either she left, or one of the other officers took her down to the station to ask her a few questions. She won't be kept there for longer than a few hours."

Angela wasn't worried about Luna at all; instead, she was more worried about whether or not the gang made it back with her.

Sergeant O'Leary dropped Angela off at the front door of the main house of Soaring Swine Acres. When Jeffrey opened the door, he took one look at Angela and said, "Your parents and Miss Luna are in the parlor. Your parents are not at all pleased."

Angela swallowed hard. She didn't mind being in trouble, but if Luna was going to be punished because of her, that wasn't something she could live with. As she walked into the parlor, she took a seat on the plush, cream colored love seat across next to Luna as her parents glared at her on the couch. Luna's porcelain-like face was painted with an expression of defeat.

"Sergeant O'Leary called," Penelope said as she lowered her voice dangerously. "You were involved in a public incident. Do you have any idea what this could do to our family's reputation?"

"We're firing Luna," Sam declared. "We don't have a choice. I knew I shouldn't have hired someone who wasn't American."

"Don't fire her!" Angela cried as she shot up from the loveseat. "This was all _my_ fault. Luna was watching me the entire time, but I wandered away and joined the conga line because it looked like fun!" Sure, it was a big, fat lie, but if Angela didn't choose her words wisely, one of her best friends would be gone. "_Please_ don't send Luna back to France! You hired her to be my friend! She _is_ my friend! Don't take her away from me!"

Sam and Penelope were silent.

"All right," Penelope folded. "We'll give her one more chance. Another screw-up and she's out on her ears."

"Merci! Merci! Thank you!" Luna cried out in relief and gratitude.

"But in order for her to stay, you need to correct your attitude, young lady," Sam said as he shot Angela a scolding look. "You're acting like you did when you spent all your time with those green freaks."

"What's the matter with the crowd I'm seeing? Don't you know that they're out of touch?" Angela asked.

"That's enough out of you. You better shape up or Luna ships out. Your behavior in school is still less than desirable and grades still aren't any better," Penelope reminded her.

"Why should you try to be a straight-A student? If you are, then you think too much!" Angela retorted.

"James is a straight-A student. I'm hoping that boy can turn you around. For an Asian kid, he's all right," Sam nodded.

"Look, I like James, a lot," Angela said. "But you gotta stop putting me under all this pressure. It's just a waste of time, if that's what it's all about." She turned to Penelope and said, "Mama, if that's movin' up, then I'm movin' out."

"You leave this house, we'll disown you," Penelope threatened.

Suddenly, Sam began to breathe heavily. He clutched his chest with his left hand as his right arm went rigid. His eyes rolled upward.

"Daddy! What's happening?" Angela asked as her jaw dropped.

"I'm having a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack, you oughta know by now!" Sam stammered before his eyes rolled into his head and he collapsed on the ground.

Two hours later, Angela, Penelope, Princess, and Daddy Morbucks sat outside in the waiting room at the Cityville hospital.

"What did you do _this_ time?" Princess spat at Angela. "I know he had a heart attack because of something you did. I'm missing my cartoons for this! They interrupted my favorite show with a press conference saying a bunch of random people destroyed the mall and then started a conga line."

That was a total lie; no one _destroyed _ the mall. But if Angela defended her case, her friends would be found out.

"It wasn't anything I did," Angela defended. "My dad's way older than yours and Grandma Morbucks had a heart attack when I was your age, so I had a feeling this would happen sooner or later."

"Whatever," Princess said as she rolled her eyes. "You probably screwed up big time with one of your pranks or something. I know you did."

"Hey, I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints," Angela said as she shrugged her shoulders. "The sinners are much more fun. Only the good die young."

"Good. Maybe I'll pay someone to tap dance on your grave at your funeral," Princess said sarcastically.

"Will you both _please_ stop bickering?" Penelope scolded. She avoided eye contact with either of the girls as she applied a fresh coat of powder to her worn face.

The doctor walked into the waiting room.

"Mrs. Morbucks," the doctor began, "Mr. Morbucks will be fine. If you want to visit him, you may, but he's being pretty punky at the moment."

Meanwhile, back at Soaring Swine Acres, things were surprisingly quiet in the guest cottage with Angela away.

"Man, when's Angie coming back?" Ace asked.

"I dunno man, but I'm getting hungry."

"Should I cook for you?" Luna offered.

"No sssssweeetheart," Snake said affectionately. "You've had a sssssserioussssly rough day. Why don't we order a pizza or ssssssomething?"

"I seriously think I'm gonna puke," Ace said as he looked at Snake and Luna sitting together on the flame-painted sofa. Snake had his spindly arms wrapped around Luna's svelte frame.

"I wouldn't mind a pizza," Arturo agreed.

"Big Billy wanna order the pizza!" Billy volunteered eagerly.

"You sure, Billy?" Ace asked. "It's a pretty big job, but if you think you can do it, go ahead."

Big Billy picked up the phone and dialed the number for Pizza Hut.

"Pizza Hut, this is Leyna, how can I help you?" Greeted the girl on the other end.

"Hi!" Big Billy said with a goofy grin on his face.

"Can I take your order?" Leyna asked, her voice growing nervous.

"My name is Big Billy!" Billy replied eagerly. Ace shook his head in disappointment.

"Billy, come on, lemme order the pizza," Ace insisted impatiently. He tried to grab the phone away.

"No! Billy wanna order the pizza!" Big Billy protested. "Can I gets a large medium pizza, please?"

"Sir, I can't do that. I can only give you a medium pizza or a large pizza."

"Okay, okay. Can I gets a medium _large_ pizza! Oh, and I wants pepperonis and meaty-balls!" Big Billy excitedly requested. "Never mind. I just want pepperonis. The meaty-balls might start a fight with them if they're on the same pizza." At that point, Luna's pale face was turning pink from stifling her laughter. "Oh, and can I get fries with that?"

"Sir, if this is some kind of crank call, I'm not falling for it," Leyna said irately. The phone clicked on the other end.

"Hi!" Billy said eagerly to the dial tone. The gang burst out laughing. Even Ace had a smile on his lips.

"Billy, as far as crank calls go, that one was one of yer best," Ace complimented. He then smacked Big Billy in the jaw. "Too bad that wasn't the point."

At that moment, Angela burst through the door carrying a large pepperoni and meatball pizza.

"PIZZA!" The guys all cried in unison. Snake grabbed the pizza from Angela's hands and took it to the table where everyone proceeded to gobble it down.

"How'd you know that this is what we wanted?" Arturo asked in surprise as he picked up a slice of pizza. "You're crazy, you know that, Angie?"

"You may be right, I may be crazy," Angela admitted.

"Hey girl, why'd you do this?" Ace asked.

"Let's just say you're all incredibly predictable and so I stopped by and got a pizza on the way home," Angela explained. "I told my mom that Luna and I wanted one. Now I'm going to take a nice hot bath. It's been a long day."

Ten seconds later, they heard a blood-curdling scream. Everyone was dead silent after that except for Grubber, who burst out in a series of staccato raspberries, almost like laughing.

"WHO PUT A LOBSTER IN MY SHOWER?!" Angela demanded. She stormed out wearing a baby blue bathrobe. She glared at Grubber.

"Oooh, Grubber, youssss in troublessssss," Snake said quietly.

"Why'd you do it Grubber?" Angela asked furiously.

Grubber then exploded in a long explanation that consisted of a ton of angry raspberries.

"Geez! I'm sorry I gave away the ending to _Forrest Gump_! But that's no reason to take it out on me! I hope you realize that this means war! The night is still young!" Angela threatened. "I'll get you back! Just you wait and see!"

Grubber went dead silent.

"Angie, come have pizza with us, this can wait til tomorrow," Ace said, trying to soothe Angela's temper.

"Oh no, tomorrow is today," Angela said deviously.


	14. An Unlikely Ally

**SuperSailorCharon: I don't own Safeway and this story is not an accurate representation of Safeway or the Safeway Corporation (although it IS a fairly accurate representation of the particular Safeway I worked at a few years ago). **

Angela wasn't joking when she said she was going to prank Grubber. Not only did she prank him, she managed to prank everyone else in the guest cottage. The next morning, Grubber plopped off of Princess's bed and turned on the ceiling fan. He blew a confused raspberry as the entire room was soon covered in white powder. Arturo, Grubber, and Big Billy were all soon covered in mountains of baby powder.

"Grubber, you should really apologize to Angie for putting the lobster in her shower," Arturo said as he spat out baby powder. Grubber blew a protesting raspberry.

"It's snowing!" Big Billy cried happily as he threw little piles of baby powder into the air.

"Whatever man," Arturo said. "I'm gonna go get some breakfast."

Arturo noticed Angela standing in the kitchen eating a hard-boiled egg.

"You want one?" Angela offered casually.

"Sure," Arturo said, not thinking twice. Angela went into the fridge and grabbed an egg. Arturo cracked it open and yolks spilled out all over the floor leaving a goopy yellow mess. "Hey! That wasn't funny!" He protested.

"Sorry," Angela said laughing. "I couldn't resist!"

"You're supposed to be pranking Grubber, not me!" Arturo reminded her.

"Don't you worry, he's gonna get his," Angela said. "The baby powder was just the start of it."

Grubber walked into the kitchen and grabbed a box of cheerios and a bowl. He poured himself some Cheerios and grabbed the sugar bowl where he put several heaping spoonfuls of sugar on top. He walked over to the table and began lapping up his breakfast with his freakishly large tongue, paying no mind to Angela and Arturo.

"That's not sugar in the sugar bowl," Angela whispered.

"What is it?" Arturo asked, the suspense killing him.

"Just wait and see," Angela said with a wink. "It'll be funnier if you take Grubber's belt and loop it around the chair so he won't be able to get up."

Arturo laughed impishly as he scurried over to the table. Grubber was completely oblivious when Arturo looped the rope holding up Grubber's baggy brown pants to the back of the chair. Grubber still paid no attention and was fixated on his breakfast. When he was fully finished, he let out a satisfied belch and patted his belly.

Suddenly, the smile was wiped off of Grubber's face when his belly began to churn and bubble. Grubber bolted from the table, the chair still tied to him. He threw open the door to the bathroom, pushing out Snake who was in the middle of brushing his teeth in the shower. He had a towel wrapped around him as he dripped water all over the place.

"Sssssomeone put sssssalt on the toothpasssssste!" Snake said irately, spitting out foam. "And I can't get the topssssss of the shampoo off! It'ssss like ssssssomeone glued themsssss!"

"Sorry Snake!" Angela said through hysterical laughter. "I didn't think any of the bathroom pranks would work considering none of you ever bathe anyway!"

"Since when did you care so much about personal hygiene anyway?" Arturo asked.

"Having a girlfriend will do thatssssss to youssss," Snake admitted.

"What'd you put in the sugar bowl, anyway, Angie?" Arturo asked.

"Laxatives!" Angela cried as Snake and Arturo burst out laughing.

Coming from Angela's room, the sound of the CD player began playing country music. The sound of "The Sweetest Thing" by Juice Newton began to fill the guest cottage.

"Hey! This ain't AC/DC!" Ace complained. "Angie!" Angela burst out laughing. The doorknob began to rattle. "Angie! Open the damn door!"

"Good luck!" Angela laughed. "I coated the doorknob with Vaseline!"

Luna walked out of the guest room.

"Angela, how early were you awake this morning?" Luna asked.

"You gotta get up pretty early to prank everyone in the house!" Angela said, still succumbing to uncontrollable laughter.

"You still haven't played any pranks on me," Luna boasted. "I have to go get a few things at the store. Do you all want to go with me?"

"Yeah, let's all go to the store," Angela agreed when she finally caught her breath.

"Can we takessss the busssss or ssssomething?" Snake asked. "I don't wanna lie in the trunkssss again."

"We can take the subway!" Angela suggested. "We can take the subway to Safeway and then we can get Subway sandwiches!"

"Enough word play already, lemme outta here will ya?" Ace yelled from inside of Angela's room as he pounded on the door.

"Fine! I _guess_ I'll let you out," Angela said jokingly. She turned the knob and Ace stood there looking more than annoyed.

"Fine," he said with his arms folded across his chest. "Let's go to the store."

Meanwhile, Luna was trying to decide what to wear that day. She opened the closet door, and an entire box of ping pong balls spilled out, startling Luna as she let out a small scream. Just like clockwork, Angela was standing at the doorway to Luna's room laughing hysterically.

"What was that again about you being the only one who didn't get pranked?" Angela asked.

Luna rolled her eyes.

"Hey, if it makes you feel better, I'll clean all this up when we get back from the store," Angela offered. "You won't have to lift a finger."

"I better not have to!"

"Trust me, you won't. Besides, I have an idea of the kind of fun we could have today while we're out," Angela said deviously.

"You have my attention," Luna said, her voice softening. "Tell me!"

A little over half an hour later, the gang found themselves crammed on a subway. Luna stood near the door selling newspapers.

"Extra! Extra!" Luna cried. "Fifty people swindled! Fifty people swindled!"

"Lemme buy one of those," said a man in a suit. He handed Luna fifty cents and began reading the paper.

Ten minutes and a few stops later, the businessman slid over to Luna and said, "Excuse me miss. There's nothing in this paper about fifty people being swindled."

"Extra! Extra! Fifty-one people swindled! Fifty-one people swindled!" Luna announced.

"Whatever, can I just have my money back?" The businessman asked irately.

"Big Billy thought it was funny!" Big Billy laughed.

"Well I thought it _wasn't_," the businessman snapped. "And by the way," he said, turning his attention back to Luna, "Your giant friend has _horrible_ breath."

"It's not his fault he decided that dumping garlic powder on the leftover pizza was a delicious part of this complete breakfast," Angela said as she shrugged her shoulders.

Speaking of breakfast, Grubber, who still hadn't gotten over the wrath of Angela's prank, began jumping up and down in a jittery way blowing short raspberries.

"Easy there, Grubber, we're gonna get off in two more stops," Arturo said, hoping his hunchbacked friend wouldn't explode.

Angela stifled her laughter as the irate businessman got off at the next stop when a young man caught her attention.

"Angela?"

Angela looked at someone sitting across from her. He looked and sounded very familiar. The young man lowered his shades. Sure enough, it was James. Angela would've recognized those eyes anywhere, except they were bloodshot and heavy, like it had been several days since James had seen sleep.

"James!" Angela cried excitedly. "What are you doing here? I thought you were in Washington DC!"

"I was," James replied with a yawn. "I got in this morning. All I wanted to do was sleep, but my parents gave me a ton of crap because my team won second place in the math-a-thon. So I decided to go out for a while."

"Wait a second, _math-a-thon_?" Ace asked, stifling his laughter and disbelief. "You mean I'm supposed to compete with _this_ nerd?"

"You're not competing with anyone," Angela said as she shot Ace a dirty look. She looked back over at James. "James, these are my best friends. My parents can't stand them though, but I hang out with them anyway!"

The Gangrene Gang all introduced themselves and said their hellos, all except for Ace who folded his arms across his chest and glared at James as if to say, "You make eyes at my girl, and I'll kick your ass."

"Bonjour, monsieur!" Luna greeted. "Pleased to meet you!"

"Oh, and that's Luna," Angela added. "She's from France. My parents hired her to be my best friend, and do stuff in the guest cottage and stuff. I don't think they pay her enough, to be honest. Anyway, we're on our way to the store! You wanna come with us?"

"Sure," James smiled. "I don't have anything better to do today."

As the subway stopped, the gang flooded out of the car and filed up the stairs where they proceeded to walk into Safeway. From there, chaos ensued as the gang split off in several different directions to cause all sorts of mayhem.

"One more thing that I should mention about my friends," Angela warned James. "My friends kinda can't go anywhere in public without making a scene."

"That's okay," James said. "I don't embarrass easily."

Snake picked up Luna, which was quite a feat for someone who didn't look very strong. Snake placed Luna carefully in the shopping cart and began pushing her around.

"Why don't youssss let ssssssomeone elssssse do the shopping today?" Snake suggested sweetly. Luna giggled and blushed. Big Billy was following them and he applauded and cheered every time an item plopped into the basket. Snake began picking random items, items that Angela was fairly sure the gang didn't need (who needs a ten pound bag of candy unless they're stuffing a piñata?) but it made her proud to see Snake doing something purely selfless. And everyone around Angela thought that these guys were total delinquents.

Well, maybe they were. And maybe she was too.

"You go ahead with Big Billy, Snake, and Luna," Angela told James. "I gotta use the ladies' room."

Meanwhile, in the bakery aisle, Arturo and Ace were being as annoying as possible to one of the employees giving free samples.

"Man, I can't decide what I want, everything here looks pretty good," Ace said, feigning indecisiveness.

"Me neither," Arturo said, trying not to laugh.

"Would you like to try some samples?" The bakery clerk asked. She was a short, stout woman with a broad forehead. "I can cut up some bread or cakes for you and you can sample and see what you want."

And so Arturo and Ace asked for as many samples as they possibly could as the poor bakery clerk wondered if they were going to actually buy anything. When they'd sampled almost every item in the bakery, the bakery clerk said, "So have you decided what you wanted yet?"

"Yeah, how's about we try that gigantic sheet cake over there?" Ace said, pointing to a huge chocolate sheet cake with vanilla icing.

The annoyed bakery clerk hid her impatience with the adolescent boys and cut off a piece for Ace and a piece for Arturo. Just then, Ace sneezed on the sheet cake. The bakery clerk screamed in horror.

"Man, that was gross," Arturo said laughing.

"I know, right? I guess you can't sell that," Ace rationalized. "I could finish that for you if you want!" He volunteered.

"Melissa, to checkout lane five, Melissa, lane five," said the voice over the PA system.

"Fine," the bakery clerk said as she rolled her eyes. She was about to head off for the check stands. "Take it and get _out_."

Ace and Arturo took the sheet cake for themselves and proceeded to devour it in another corner of the store.

While Angela was in the ladies' room, she wanted to see how many people she could freak out. The bathroom was fairly crowded, which made for a perfect opportunity to grab a cantaloupe into the toilet. The splash caused the bathroom to go dead silent.

"Oh man, I feel _much_ better," Angela sighed. She then dropped a marble on the tile floor and groaned, "Oh shit! There goes my glass eye!"

People proceeded to flood out of the bathroom screaming. When only a few women remained, Angela walked out and swapped the signs on the bathroom doors.

"My work here is done," Angela said wickedly as she walked away.

Grubber, who had been ready to explode since getting off the subway, sprinted into the room mistakenly marked "Men". He was met with a female scream before being thrown out of the bathroom.

Angela soon caught up with James, Ace, Arturo, and Big Billy in the produce department. They were bowling with pineapples and coconuts. Angela grinned; it seemed like James had figured out the ways of her friends almost immediately.

"Steeeerike!" James shouted.

"You cheated!" Big Billy accused.

"No I didn't!" James protested. "I stayed behind the line!"

"He did, Billy, I was watchin'," Ace said.

"What're you both doing here?" Angela asked.

"Luna told us to get vegetables," James said. "And then Billy and I caught up with the others and they suggested we bowl with pineapples and coconuts. I thought it was a horrible idea, honestly."

"Yeah, until you started winning!" Arturo reminded him.

"Uh guys," said a produce clerk that approached the gang. He had curly brown hair and gauges in both ears. He looked to be in his late twenties. His nametag read "Ryan". "You can't bowl here unless you buy those things first."

"Hey Ryan!" Angela cried.

"Angela, can't you tell your friends to stop that?" Ryan asked.

"They kinda have a mind of their own," Angela admitted. "I _could_ but it won't really do any good."

"Well I kinda don't care _what_ you do, just don't get me fired," Ryan said frankly.

Big Billy waddled his thunderous frame over to Ryan and began asking stupid questions. Ryan was putting away sweet potatoes and Angela saw this as a very good time to sneak a rubber banana spider in one of the banana boxes on Ryan's cart.

"Is this the vegetabible aisle?" Big Billy asked with a goofy grin on his face.

"Yes, this is the vegetable aisle," Ryan replied.

Big Billy stood there with the freak grin on his face.

"Is this the vegetabible aisle?" He asked again.

"Look, I don't have time for this," Ryan said as he pushed the cart over to the banana display. He popped open a box of bananas and screamed upon seeing the rubber banana spider. He knocked over the banana box and while knocking over several by-standers, including an elderly woman, Ryan sprinted out of the store, jumped into his car, and never looked back. By now James and the members of the gang were in stitches.

Watching nearby was an overweight, bespectacled employee who looked to be about nineteen or twenty. She had long, dirty blonde hair that was tied back in a low ponytail. She looked like that was the hardest she'd laughed in a lifetime when a middle-aged pinch-face woman tore through the produce department.

"Everything here looks like crap!" The woman said furiously as she picked up a container of blueberries and threw them on the floor. "Who's the manager of this department?"

"He ran away, ma'am," the chubby employee said. The nametag on her green apron read "Rachel".

"Well, this is completely unacceptable!" The woman spat. "You're all out of cherries, too! How unprofessional! I thought the customer was _always_ right!"

"If you wait, I can go back into the cooler and see if we have any cherries," Rachel offered meekly.

"Too late!" The woman said as she shot Rachel a dirty look. "I'll have to go take a rain check." The nasty woman was on her way to customer service when Big Billy grabbed the woman and bellowed, "If that nice lady wants you to buy vegetabibles, you buy vegetabibles!"

"Billy's right, there's no reason to be a total bitch," Angela said. "It's only funny when _we're_ being assholes to the people that work here."

"Excuse me, Miss Morbucks, but that's _no_ way for someone with your kind of upbringing to be talking," the woman spat. "Do your parents know you're here?"

Angela frowned. She hated being so easily recognized.

"Do whatever you want," Angela said, her voice low and even. "I'll pay you enough money to buy enough cherries to give you the trots for all I care. But don't you _dare_ tell my parents I was here." Angela pulled several hundred dollars out of her purse and gave it to the nasty woman. She turned and left.

Quickly approaching the produce department was the short-statured manager. She was an inch shorter than Angela and had thin blonde hair tied up in a bun. Her face made her resemble some type of farm animal. She wore black slacks and a silk purple shirt. Despite her size, the manager was a menacing figure that made Rachel cower in fear.

"Rachel, why are there two produce carts on the floor?" The manager asked. "You know store policy! Only one cart on the floor per department at a time unless someone is manning the other cart!"

"Ashley, I'm sorry, the other one was Ryan's and…" Rachel sputtered.

"I also heard there was a dispute with one of the customers in this department," the manager said. "You know the customer's always right. That's why we're here to provide world class service."

"Look, _that_ wasn't Rachel's fault," Angela stepped in. "One of the customers was being a rotten bitch to Rachel and we told her to get lost."

"Excuse me, Miss Morbucks, I wasn't talking to you," the manager said. "Billionaire heiress or not, I have a business to run. It's not _my_ fault I don't have money like your father and I and the rest of the employees here have to _earn_ a living providing world class service!"

"Don't resent me because I have money," Angela retorted.

"Anyway, Rachel, you're fired," Ashley said. "I'll get my assistant Dick to find a replacement for you."

Arturo, Ace, Billy, James, and Rachel all doubled over laughing at the fact that the manager had an assistant named Dick.

"What an appropriate name for your assistant," Ace said sardonically. "Judging by your looks, it's something you probably never, ever get."

"Okay, Rachel, get out of my store and take these delinquents with you!" Ashley ordered.

"You do realize that your employees can't stand you," Rachel said.

"I know, and I don't care," Ashley said.

"Hey, on your next day off, I'll pay my midget friend here to run around the store singing 'Ding Dong the Witch is Dead'," Angela threatened. James laughed hysterically and Arturo couldn't help but grin.

"I'll do it for nothing!" Arturo volunteered.

"GET OUT!" The manager screamed.

The motley crew followed the recently fired employee out of the store through the automatic doors.

Meanwhile, Luna and Snake were at the self check-out. Grubber caught up to them and Snake insisted on ringing up everything himself, something he knew how to do well enough, but had trouble with. Unfortunately, that took forever and people behind them in line were starting to get angry.

"Sir, let me help you," a cashier offered.

"No!" Snake insisted. "Let me do it myssssself!"

"Could you do us a favor though?" Luna asked.

"Ugh, what?!" Asked the frustrated cashier.

"Could you page someone for me?" Luna asked. She was still sitting in the shopping cart. "Someone named Luna Devereux?"

The cashier sighed and spoke clearly into the microphone, "Luna Devereux, please come to self check-out. Your party is waiting for you."

"Oh, that's me," Luna said casually. "Come on Snake, we've got to go!" Snake laughed through his teeth.

Back outside, the gang tried to appease Rachel.

"I'm really sorry about your job," James said.

"It was _my_ fault. It really was," Angela adamantly insisted.

"Nah, it's all good," Rachel replied. "I hated it there. Although I'll miss Ryan's stories about how he used to live next door to William Shatner."

"Something tells me that guy ain't ever comin' back," Ace said.

"Still, I wish there was a way I could save up money to go visit a friend of mine in France," Rachel sighed as she removed her apron. "That's the only reason I applied for this stupid job."

"Since it's really our fault you got fired, I'm going to do something for you," James said. He took a checkbook out of his pocket and wrote a check for two thousand, five hundred dollars. He handed the check to Rachel and upon seeing it, her jaw dropped.

"What the fuck?!" She spat. She stared at the signature. "_Yamamoto?_ As in Cityville Motors? You're _the_ James Yamamoto."

"I get that a lot," James said as he turned bright red. "No need to thank me."

"That was a great thing you did, James," Angela said in awe.

"That was a great thing you did, James," Ace mimicked patronizingly as he rolled his eyes. Of course, Angela and James ignored him.

Just then, Grubber, Snake, and Luna came out of the store with the shopping bags. When Luna and Rachel's eyes locked, it was like they immediately recognized each other.

"LUNA!" Rachel cried.

"RACHEL!" Luna cried as she sprang out of the shopping cart, nearly knocking it over. She raced over to give the checker a hug.

"Guess who's coming to visit you next year, just as I promised!" Rachel boasted. "And it's all thanks to these people!"

"You _know _each othersssss?" Snake asked in bewilderment.

"Yeah! This is the friend I was telling you about!" Rachel explained. "We met in on a gaming site!"

"Hey Rachel, you wanna come have dinner with us?" Angela offered. "My treat!"

And so the Gangrene Gang and their new friends carried all the shopping bags into the cozy-looking restaurant next to the Safeway. As they were seated in a huge booth near the window, Angela looked over at James and asked, "So, what do you think of my friends?"

James was quiet for a moment. He finally replied with a wide smile, "They're _awesome_! I don't remember the last time I had this much fun!"

Everyone laughed, all except for Ace, who merely continued to glare at James.

**Trivia: As I mentioned, this is based on my working experience at Safeway. Rachel is based off of me and the cherry incident actually did happen, though I didn't have awesome people like Angela to stand up for me. Ryan is based off of a real person. He always said if he found out a banana spider while unpacking the banana boxes, he would indeed run out of the store screaming like a lunatic. **


	15. Life is Unfair

**SuperSailorCharon: Updating these chapters might be a bit slower than I hoped. Tomorrow I have my math final and since we have almost two feet of snow (in MAY of all times of the year!) I have no idea if I'll be able to make it to the campus to take my final, so I'm a little stressed out, atm. Anyway, enjoy! I don't own "The Song That Never Ends" or "Life Less Ordinary" by Carbon Leaf.**

The week crept by slower than a snail on sleeping pills. Angela's pranks didn't end in school, and most of the time she wasn't disciplined; her teachers had sort of given up despite the fact that she was often a major source of distraction during class. On Friday afternoon, she managed to stay hidden in the cabinet during her social studies class as the teacher read the roll call. She stayed there until nearly an hour into the class when she finally jumped out of the cabinet and yelled, "HA! I _fooled_ you! I was hiding in the cabinet this entire time!" Several of the girls in the back row near the cabinet screamed in surprise. Angela's social studies teacher, a frail older woman, nearly had a heart attack.

"Oh my _God,_ quit being a spaz," Christa groaned as she rolled her eyes. "No one thinks your jokes are funny except for the green losers you always hang out with."

"Does it count as me being absent if I was here the whole time?" Angela asked, ignoring Christa.

"No, I suppose it doesn't," Angela's social studies teacher sighed, trying to recover from her initial shock. "Now, can I see your essay on your analysis of the assassination of JFK?"

Angela fished her paper out of her backpack. A white stripe was painted down the center of her essay.

"_What_ is this?" The social studies teacher demanded.

"Oh yeah," Angela said, "On the way to school I accidentally dropped my paper in the middle of the road. One of those road painters came by and painted right over my paper."

The bell rang, signaling it was time for Angela to go home. She got into her limo as it cruised home. She thanked her lucky stars that this week was over and the weekend could start. The limo pulled up in front of the guest cottage and Angela walked through the front door where Luna and the Gangrene Gang all looked like they were getting ready to go someplace.

"Where the hell were ya?" Ace asked. "We've been waitin' for over an hour!"

"I was at school, remember? Wait, where are we going?" Angela asked, completely taken by surprise.

"The Cityville Fair is in town! I want to go!" Luna cried. She was wearing a little frilly pink dress.

"The fair's in town? Well why didn't you say so?" Angela cried. "All the more chances to annoy people!"

"Well whadda we waitin' for?" Ace asked. "Let's go!"

"Hold on a moment," Angela said, "I wanna ask James if he wants to go with us."

"What the hell?" Ace asked. "Do we _hafta_ invite him?"

"Big Billy thinks James is cool!" Big Billy said with a happy laugh. Grubber nodded and blew a raspberry in agreement.

"Come on, don't be rude," Angela said.

"You spend enough time with him already!" Ace complained.

"Only because my parents make me do it!" Angela argued. "Crap, we don't have time to argue about this. By the time we actually _get_ to the fair, it'll be closed for the night." Angela picked up the phone in the kitchen and dialed James's phone number.

"Hey Mrs. Yamamoto? It's Angela, is James there?" Angela asked. A pause followed, and then Angela chirped, "Hey James! You busy? We're gonna go to the Cityville Fair if you wanted to meet us there. Great! We'll be there in half an hour."

"What's the matta?" Ace asked patronizingly. "Did pretty boy not have enough math homework?"

"Quit being a jerk!" Angela snapped. "Now let's go to the fair. Can't we just _try_ to get along?"

"Nopessssss," Snake said. "It'ssss impossssssssible." Of course, Ace punched him in the jaw. "I meansss let'ssssss go to the fair."

On the way t the subway station, no one said a word. Ace broke the silence with, "You know what they say about Asians…"

The other guys laughed while Angela and Luna didn't look amused.

"You're horrible," Angela said as she rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, quit acting like you gotta stick up yer ass," Ace said. "You woulda thought it was funny a long time ago!"

"I'm just gonna ignore you for now," Angela said.

The gang made their way down to the subway station. As they walked through the turnstiles to get on the subway, Angela insisted on annoying everyone by paying only in pennies and putting them in the slot one at a time.

As they rode the subway, Angela broke the silence by singing, "This is the song that never ends! It goes on and on my friend! Some people started singing it not knowing what it was. And they'll continue singing it forever just because this is the song that never ends!" Angela kept singing the song. Luna could hardly contain her laughter. Big Billy started singing along with her and eventually, so did the other guys. Everyone else on the subway looked either horrified or absolutely annoyed. Angela took a piece of paper and a pen out of her purse and scribbled frantically as she sang. She held it up and continued to sing with a horrified expression on her face. The paper read, "HELP US! WE CAN'T STOP SINGING THIS SONG!"

Finally, Ace couldn't take it anymore.

"Geez Angie, do you come with a remote?" Ace snapped furiously. "Damn!"

The singing stopped and the subway ride continued in silence.

Normally, Angela thought it was hilarious when she got on Ace's nerves. For some reason, it stung more now than it ever had before.

Twenty minutes later, the group met up with James outside the entrance to the fair grounds. Everyone was glad to see him all except for Ace.

"This place smells like shit and drunk people," Ace groaned. "Can we go home?"

"We jusssst got heressss!" Snake protested as Ace smacked him in the jaw.

"Hey, whose idea was it to come here in the first place?" Arturo reminded him.

"It was mine," Luna corrected.

"Oh, never mind," Arturo mumbled.

"So what should we do first?" James asked.

"I say we get on the biggest roller coaster at the fair!" Angela cried as she pointed to the biggest rollercoaster in the park. James looked uneasy, but Angela took him by the hand and raced to get in line as the others tried to keep up.

"Damn, this line's too long," Ace complained. "We're gonna be waitin' here all night!"

"No we aren't," Angela promised him. "Trust me, I got an idea."

Angela took one of the chains marking where the line met up and moved it so that it ended right behind them.

"What good'll that do?" Ace asked, not sure what his girlfriend was scheming now.

"If we wanna get on this ride later, the line won't be so long," Angela said. Everyone else looked extremely confused. Angela then began to talk incredibly loud, so loud the people in the front of the line could hear her. "Gee, I remember the last time I got on this rollercoaster. Man, everyone got stuck upside down on the loop for _hours_! I wonder if they ever actually _fixed_ this ride!"

Big Billy didn't realize that Angela was just joking, and he began to wail, "Big Billy no _wanna_ get stuck on the rollercoaster! I don't wanna ride this ride!" Eventually, the people in the front of the line grew very uneasy and began to leave their places in line, deciding that the rollercoaster wasn't worth it.

"Well, it'ssss too late for that, Billy," Snake said, finally catching on to Angela's intention. "We're already in linessss for the rollercoassster."

"Promise you'll hold me close when we get to the loop," Luna said as Snake held her tightly.

The line got shorter and shorter when all the people who were scared of getting stuck on the rickety wooden rollercoaster began to disappear. A few people still remained at the front, and the gang was going to be next.

"So lemme get this straight," Ace said to a worker who was attending the ride, "I can still ride this rollercoaster if I'm drunk, right?"

"Uh, I don't see why you can't," the worker said.

"Well can I ride it if I've just smoked some weed?" Ace asked.

"Uh…sure?" The worker replied, getting very uneasy.

"What if we jusssst took ecssstassy?" Snake said with a snicker.

"This is getting ridiculous," the worker said.

"Oooh! Oooh! What if we all got done doing meth?" Arturo chirped.

"For the last time, yes!" The worker snapped as he lost his patience. "But your fat friend can't ride with you," he said pointing to Big Billy. "We'll never get the lap bar down over him."

"Can't he just ride a single-rider?" James suggested.

"Nope, rules is rules," said the carnival worker.

"Phew! Big Billy no wanna ride the rollercoaster anyway," Big Billy said in relief.

"Well, someone should stay with you!" Angela said. "I don't want you wandering the fairgrounds by yourself! You might get kidnapped by carnies!"

Grubber raised his hand and blew a volunteering raspberry.

"Okay, Grubber, you take Big Billy and we'll meet you over by the stand where they sell fried Twinkies," Angela said. "I'm getting hungry."

"They _fry_ Twinkies?" Luna asked in disgust. "No wonder Americans are so fat!"

"Sorry, the short kid can't ride either," the carnival worker said, referring to Arturo.

"Hey!" Angela cried. "He's not short! He's fun-sized!"

"This is _so_ unfair!" Arturo pouted as he joined Big Billy and Grubber as they walked towards the stand that sold fried goodies.

The gang got on the rollercoaster. Somehow, Angela ended up sitting between Ace and James in the front of the rollercoaster as Luna and Snake were seated behind them, making out.

"Hey Sluna!" Angela cried as she turned back to look at the couple. Their eyes widened in surprise. "Quit it! This is a family-oriented place!"

"Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times, and yada, yada, yada," the carnival worker mumbled as he started the ride. The rollercoaster took off at breakneck speed, zipping along the rickety wooden tracks, ascending higher and higher until it looked like the rollercoaster would pierce through the clouds. It seemed to stop right at the top. Angela ceased the opportunity to take out two alka-seltzer tablets. She popped them into her mouth and let them foam. James and Ace looked over at her as though she'd gone berserk. As the rollercoaster made its dizzying, rapid drop, everyone screamed both from the speed and the fact that everyone sitting in Angela's vicinity got sprayed with white foam. After several twists and turns along the wooden tracks, James realized he couldn't stop laughing.

The ride finally came to a stop.

"Angie, that was_ gross_," Ace grunted as they all stepped off the ride. "Normally yer just annoying, but that's not yer style at all."

"Hey! It was entertaining!" James said, defending Angela as she wiped the foam from her lips.

"You'd think that, wouldn't ya?" Ace scoffed. "Man, Angie, I'd expect that from Grubber but not from you."

"He doessss have a point," Snake said in disgust.

They finally met up with Grubber, Big Billy, and Lil Arturo at the fried food stand. The three of them were already eating fried Twinkies. Angela ordered some deep-fried Oreos and Snake and Luna decided to share a deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"Come on Ace, I'm sorry," Angela said. "I'll tell you what. We can go on the tunnel of love and make fun of Sluna while they make out."

"You go without me," Ace insisted.

"I'll go with you, Angie," Arturo volunteered. "We can make fun of all the other couples, too!"

"Big Billy wanna ride the tunnel of love!" Big Billy cried as he clapped his hands.

"Billy, the only ride they'll let you on is the merry-go-round," Ace snapped. "You're too fat for everything else!"

"I don't know about you, but that sandwich made me feel _very_ fat," Luna moaned.

"Yeah, I feel fat, too," Angela concurred. "Let's go to the sideshow and go make fun of the fat lady to make ourselves feel better."

The gang disappeared for a few hours through different parts of the fair as Ace went off by himself to take his frustrations out on the Whack-a-Mole game at the midway. When the gang came back, he'd won a ton of stuffed animals. Angela and the rest of the gang walked up behind him as he furiously whacked the little moles as they popped up, never once missing.

"Wow, he's good at that," James said in awe. "He never misses one. What's his secret?"

Angela could only take a wild guess as to what Ace was thinking of when he was smashing the moles with the mallet. Finally, the game ended.

"Twenty-five cents gets you another round," the game attendant said.

"Nah, I'm broke," Ace grumbled. He scooped up all the colorful teddy bears he won and handed them to Angela.

"I won these for you," Ace said.

"Thanks…" Angela said as she took them. She didn't know what to say and couldn't figure out why Ace was acting so weird. If she had paid any attention at all in science class, she remembered reading that men act like they PMS three times a month instead of once. Maybe this was that time or something.

"So whaddya all do all night?" Ace asked.

"Grubber got us thrown out of the Tunnel of Love for drinking all the water and Big Billy kept crying on the merry-go-round so they had to stop the ride," Angela explained.

"Merry-go-round go too fast! Big Billy whined.

"Billy, that was the slowest merry-go-round ever! You're so lame," Arturo moaned.

"Hey, I'm not complaining, I had a _great_ time!" James said. "I've never had this much fun before in my life!"

"Only because you crashed into me on the bumper cars and I went flying into the stands," Arturo mumbled.

"Hey! I said I was sorry!" James said defensively. Angela grinned. James fit in with her friends just fine. Now if only Ace would pull his head out of his butt.

As the gang walked out of the fairgrounds, they passed the giant stage where the band announced they were going to play their last song.

"Hi! We're Oxygen Plant! We're a loving tribute to Carbon Leaf! And we're going to play one last song before it's time to go!" The lead singer announced into the microphone.

The cover band began to butcher "Life Less Ordinary" and the gang covered their ears and groaned in annoyance.

"Yeah, it's _definitely_ time to go home," Angela moaned.

"Let's get outta here!" Arturo cried as they gang ran as fast as they could from the fair grounds.

They took the Subway to Diamond Bar before walking the rest of the way back to Soaring Swine Acres. To Ace's extreme dismay, Angela had invited James to come back and have some tea with them. While Luna put the kettle on the stove, Angela went back to her room to drop off all the stuffed animals. To her surprise, Ace was standing at the doorway of her room. He had a small, long black velvet box in his hands.

"I never got to give this to you," Ace said. "I got it last week when we was all at the mall."

Angela opened the box and found a string of beautiful pearls. She knew Ace had stolen them, but she knew better than to call him out on it. After all, she wasn't much better.

"This is beautiful," Angela said as she held up the pearls, a tangible symbol of how he drove her crazy one moment and made her swoon the next. Ace took the pearls in his hands, which were slowly losing their green complexion after living with Angela for so long, and carefully placed the pearls around Angela's neck.

"I thought you'd like em," Ace said.

"Everyone hide!" Luna screamed. "I just saw headlights coming this way!"

The Gangrene Gang all disappeared into random hiding places throughout the house, all except for James who looked absolutely bewildered. It was too late for him to hide because Penelope burst through the front door. She looked surprised to see James sitting on the flame-embroidered couch.

"Mom! I can explain, I!" Angela stammered.

"James? What're you doing here?" Penelope asked. "Do your parents know you're here?"

"I…I…" James began, "please don't be mad at me, Mrs. Morbucks. I just wanted to take Angela to the fair. We had a lot of fun, but I hope we didn't stay out too late."

Penelope's shocked expression turned into a wide smile.

"Oh James, that was _so_ sweet of you!" Penelope beamed. "I think a trip to the fair with you was _just_ what Angela needed! You're welcome to stop by any time, by the way, as long as it's okay with your parents."

"It's all right," James said. "They knew I was with Angela."

"Angela, where did you get those pearls?" Penelope said as she walked over to her daughter and carefully examined the unfamiliar necklace in her well-manicured hands.

"I gave them to her, Mrs. Morbucks," James lied. "I was saving my birthday money to buy parts for the robot I'm working on, but I really wanted to surprise Angela with something nice before I came over here."

Ace was listening to the entire conversation from Angela's room and was now seeing red. He grit his teeth and balled his fist and vowed to beat the shit out of that punk once Angela's mother was out of sight.

"That was _so_ nice of you!" Penelope gushed. "Thank you for _all_ of your kindness towards Angela."

"She's a real catch, Mrs. Morbucks," James said. "I'm a real lucky man."

Angela grinned from ear to ear. If there was one gift James had, he knew how to tell people what they wanted to hear.

"That you are," Penelope agreed.

"I better get home though," James said. "It's late and I have a calculus test to study for."

"Well then, I'll send for a limo to take you back to your house," Penelope said. "Come with me."

Penelope and James walked out of the guest cottage. As soon as the front door clicked shut, Ace sprang out of Angela's room in a blind fury.

"That little punk-ass bitch!" Ace scowled furiously. "I swear, the next time I see him, I'm gonna kick his ass!"

"Ace, calm down," Angela begged. "That little 'punk-ass bitch' did you a favor by covering your ass so you and the guys wouldn't get caught! You should be _thanking _ him!"

Ace was still not convinced. Angela gently took him by the hand and led him over to the couch where she held him close to her.

"Why do you have to be so jealous?" Angela asked. "You don't freak out on me when I hang out with the other guys."

Ace was quiet for a while. Then he replied softly, "Maybe because I know they ain't got nothin' on me."

"Well James has nothing on you either," Angela assured him. "If he did, don't you think I would've left you a long time ago? He already _knows_ about you and me and he cares enough about _my_ happiness to make sure that nothing happens to us."

Ace didn't question her any further. He merely sat there quietly with Angela as they held each other close.

Luna looked over at them from the kitchen. She sighed and shook her head as her blonde curls fell about her slim shoulders. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake the feeling that something awful was about to happen.


	16. Betrayal

**SuperSailorCharon: Here's the first new chapter since I went on hiatus! Enjoy! **

The day after the gang's misadventures at the fair, Angela promised Ace that the two of them could spend time together to make up for the night before. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and Ace and Angela were walking around in Cityville's shopping and theater district. They walked hand in hand as the warm spring sun beat down their backs. Angela had straightened her hair and was wearing the provocative little outfit she wore when she lived with the Gangrene Gang so she wouldn't be recognized during hers and Ace's afternoon of mischief.

The first thing they did was go to a piercing parlor on the edge of the shopping district. Ten minutes later, Angela walked out of the parlor with a shiny new belly button ring with purple rhinestones.

"Didn't that hurt?" Ace asked.

"Psh, hell no," Angela said, rolling her eyes. "It looks awesome!" She had always wanted a belly button ring, but her parents, as usual, were the Fun Police.

"If you say so, but you was holdin' my hand real tight when we was in there," Ace reminded her. He would never, ever admit that watching the needle go into her skin made him a little uneasy.

Already, they had sneaked into the theater and managed to get into random snippets of twelve different movies (most of them R-rated) just for the sake of driving everyone in their vicinity crazy. They would park themselves in the front row and Angela would wear one of those big Cat in the Hat hats as she strategically seated herself in front of a very short person. Sometimes they would applaud loudly every time someone walked into the theater. Other times, they would pretend to cry obnoxiously loud during the funny parts and laugh during the sad parts of the movie. Every time a character in the movie cursed, Angela would clap her hands over her ears and scream, "Watch your language! Your vocabulary is far too advanced for my virgin ears!" During one movie that she and Ace sneaked into, they sat in the very front row and ran out of the theater screaming as soon as the opening credits began to roll.

When that got old, Angela and Ace went to a very upscale restaurant and ordered everything off the menu. As their waiter passed by, Ace would cough, "Minimum wage!" loudly under his breath. This usually sent Angela into a fit of giggles. After their food arrived, Angela would pick up huge chunks of very expensive (and possibly unidentifiable) meat and chucked it at a patron at a nearby table.

"Who threw that?!" The patron demanded. He turned to another guy wearing a top hat who was seated in the booth behind him. "Was it _you_?" He insisted.

"Not I sir!" The guy insisted.

The patron who had expensive meat thrown at him picked up his plate of tiramisu and shoved it into the face of the guy wearing the top hat. Food began to fly everywhere throughout the restaurant. Punches flew and even a few chairs were hurled into the air. That's when Angela and Ace fled the scene as they scrambled into the bathrooms and crawled out the window before the check even arrived.

Needless to say, it was a bit like old times.

"So now whaddyas wanna do?" Ace asked as they left the back alley of the restaurant and began walking up the street.

"We could go to the bowling alley and annoy people there," Angela suggested. "I had a _really_ good idea for a scam."

"My baby _always_ thinks up everythin'," Ace said approvingly. They waited at the bus stop as the bus coasted up the street. The bus doors screeched open and the middle-aged driver looked extremely impatient.

"Five bucks please," he grunted.

The pair climbed the steps to board. Angela fished into her bag for money, but realized she left her wallet at home. Her stomach filled with dread.

"Um…" Angela murmured, "I forgot my bus fare. Can you let us on? I'll pay you back later."

"Five bucks please," the driver repeated agitatedly.

"Look man, just let us on the bus," Ace insisted. "We don't want no trouble."

The driver happened to pick up a walkie-talkie and began to grumble incoherently into it.

"Just go already!" A pissed-off passenger shouted. "I'm late for work!" Angela's face turned bright red. She couldn't tell whether the passenger was yelling at her or the driver.

A few moments later, the police showed up. Ace had already jumped off the steps and Angela noticed him taking off up the road. She watched him be interrogated by the police.

"Young man, do you know that young woman?" The cop asked him.

"Nope! I've never seen her before in my life!" Ace insisted. Angela's heart dropped as she watched the police dismiss Ace and he took off into the afternoon. Why the fuck did he do that? If she ever got out of this mess, Ace was definitely going to get it when she got home. Her face burned with embarrassment and rage.

The police immediately apprehended Angela, and she found herself riding in the back of a squad car towards the police station. Still in handcuffs, Angela was shoved out of the squad car and ushered into the station where the chief and the deputy sat her down and interrogated her.

"Ma'am, do you have any form of ID on you?" The police chief asked.

"I told you! I left my wallet at home! Don't you have any idea who I am?" She demanded furiously. She hated using her status as the heiress to the richest man in the city, but if it got her out of a jam like this one, she had no other choice.

"We don't care," the deputy said tersely. "For all we know, based on how you're dressed, you could very-well be a prostitute. Don't you know that prostitution is illegal in this state? It's illegal in every state except Nevada," he reminded her.

"I'm _not_ a prostitute! I'm not a whore! I'm not even a slut! I've only done it once!" She insisted.

"TMI, girly," the chief said. "Until someone can come post your bail, we're throwing you in a cell for a little while."

"I thought I was just being arrested for not having the right bus fare," she murmured. "No one said anything about being a prostitute."

"You have the right to remain silent," the deputy told her as he dragged her by the arm and led her down the hall. "What you lack is the capacity. Now shut the hell up and do what we say."

Man, compared to Townsville, the law enforcement in Cityville sure didn't fuck around.

They took her fingerprints and stuck her in a jail cell where she waited and seethed angrily, wondering why the fuck Ace pretended not to know her. If they were going to get arrested, they might as well have done it together, just like old times. Was he really still butt-hurt over the fact that she just so happened to be spending more time with James? It's not like she liked James in that way, so why couldn't Ace just man the fuck up already?

Angela paced around the cell so much that she knew it wouldn't be long before the floor had tread marks in it. The cell was ice-cold and cramped, and she wished more than anything that she had someone to keep her company.

Hell, the times they didn't get arrested together, Angela was able to get him out, but she didn't have to pretend that she didn't know Ace or the rest of the gang. All she had to do was flash her money and her pretty smile, and Ace and his friends were usually free to go.

Ace had no money. All he had were his street smarts.

And maybe that's why he did what he did.

Angela sat down on the hard bench and sighed. Maybe Ace meant well after all. He never steered her wrong before, so why would this time be the first?

Meanwhile, back in the guest cottage at Soaring Swine Acres, Ace burst through the door.

"You guys gotta help me!" Ace insisted. "Angie forgot her bus money and got arrested!"

"Sacrebleu!" Luna swore, clutching Angela's wallet in her hand. "I was just going to come look for her and give her the wallet!"

"Angie need Big Billy's help! Big Billy help rescue Angie!" Billy said enthusiastically.

The gang all piled into the car and floored it as fast as they could down the street with Grubber behind the wheel, hoping the cops wouldn't pull them over for speeding. They finally pulled up in front of the jail.

"Wait here," Luna insisted. "They'll get suspicious if we all go in together."

Luna hurried into the building with Angela's wallet in hand.

"Excuse moi!" She said in an attempt to get the warden's attention. "I have come to post someone's bail."

"Who?" The warden asked, sitting behind the desk and looking like he lost his give-a-damn.

"Angela Morbucks was wrongfully arrested this afternoon. She forgot her wallet before getting on the bus."

"Nice try, but why would a rich girl like her try to get on a bus when she has a limo and a chauffeur and all that great stuff?" The warden asked.

"Did you take her fingerprints?" Luna asked.

"Fine," the warden grumbled. "I'll search the fingerprints of everyone we booked this afternoon, but I'm telling ya, she ain't gonna be here."

The warden typed something into his computer and a few moments later, his jaw hit the floor.

"Come with me," the warden said to Luna, leading her down the hall to the cell where Angela was being held.

"Sorry about that, Ms. Morbucks," the warden said, releasing Angela from her cell. "This little lady asked that we pardon your crime earlier today. But why'd you decide to straighten your hair and take the bus?"

"Being a celebrity gets very tiring after a while. I just wanted to take an afternoon off and be someone else," Angela sighed. She meant every word of that sentence.

The warden laughed and sent Angela and Luna on their merry way.

Back at the guest cottage, the gang sat around lounging that afternoon when James showed up unannounced. Angela answered the door, and a smile rose on her face.

"Who the fuck let you in here, pretty boy?" Ace demanded before throwing out a series of racial slurs that are so bad that the authoress won't even write them here.

"God dammit, Ace! Shut up!" Angela barked. James looked a little hurt, but quickly brushed off Ace's rudeness.

"I heard on the news what happened to you today, Angela," James began. "I'm so glad Luna was able to get you out okay."

"It was my idea to pretend I didn't know her so I could get Luna in the first place," Ace reminded him coldly.

James ignored Ace, not in the mood to put up a fight.

"I was wondering if you guys wanted to go out to dinner tonight. It'll be my treat to all of you. You know, to make up for what happened today," James offered.

Big Billy burst out of Princess's room.

"Did someone say dinner? Big Billy like dinner!" Big Billy shouted excitedly.

"Yous guys go ahead. I'm not going," Ace murmured, flopping down on the sofa.

"James, why don't you, Luna, and the others wait for us outside?" Angela suggested. "I've got a little getting-ready to do." James and the others all filed out the front door.

By "getting ready", Angela meant telling off Ace.

"Ace, dammit, can't you stop being a dick for just one night?"

"I don't want him hanging around here no more," Ace said flatly. "He acts like he's better than us just cause he's got money."

"No he doesn't!" Angela insisted. She sat down on the sofa next to him. "I'm done having this talk with you. Can't you just accept he's not a threat to us? Can't you just…"

"You can go with him if you want, but if something happens, I don't wanna hear about it," Ace told her.

"Don't interrupt me!" Angela snapped. "How many times do I have to tell you nothing will happen?" Angela asked impatiently. "We can't go on like this. Why the hell don't you trust me? I trusted you when you just left me there today to get arrested," she paused before adding, "I would've been happier if you stayed with me the whole time, but I trusted you to do the right thing, and you did. I demand the same respect from you."

Ace didn't say another word after that. A long pause counted in heartbeats passed between them.

"Let's go eat some dinner," he said reluctantly. "If it's on someone else's dime, I can't argue with that."

"Damn straight!" Angela said, rising from the sofa.

**SuperSailorCharon: Damn. It's been so long since I've worked on this story that I've gotten rusty, as this chapter was pretty week. Oh well. The next couple chapters should get better (I hope). **


	17. An Unpleasant Discovery

**SuperSailorCharon: Okee dokee! Here's the next chapter! I own nothing except my OCs. **

Two months had gone by since Angela allowed the Gangrene Gang to secretly stay with her and Luna in the guest cottage. Despite the amount of time Angela was forced to spend time with James, she always made time for the first people she ever called friends. Eventually, she and Ace were able to stop fighting about James.

On the morning of June sixth, Angela regretted having to be in school that day. Luckily, she only had to do it one last time for the summer. Good riddance to the prison she was supposed to call private school! She was most disappointed to see the looks on the faces of her friends as she left them several little surprises throughout the guest cottage.

"What the _fuck_?!" Ace asked as he jolted awake to the sound of an air horn going off. He grabbed his clothes that were in a messy heap on the floor and threw them on before going to see which dumbass had the bright idea of waking him up with an air horn.

"Mother fuckin…" Ace mumbled as he opened the door ready to tear whoever was making that noise a new one. As the bedroom door swung open, the sound of an air horn went off and Ace jumped ten feet in the air in surprise.

"Ace, will you _please…_" Luna moaned as she opened the door to the guest room setting off another air horn.

"God dammit! Whose idea was this?" Ace asked.

Grubber, who set off the first air horn, blew a raspberry and pointed to the fact that someone had duct-taped air horns to the wall so that when the door swung open, the knob would press the button on top of the air horn.

"Who elssssse could have done that?" Snake asked with a grin on his face as he poked his head out of the guest room.

"Angie!" Everyone said in unison.

"Hey, someone left this box of donuts here," Ace said pointing to a giant box of Krispie Kremes sitting on the table.

"Did someone say donuts?" Lil Arturo asked in excitement. He scrambled over to the table and took a cream-filled donut.

"Hey! Sssssave ssssssome for ussss!" Snake protested.

Lil Arturo took a big bite and his face, if it were even possible, turned greener than it already was.

"That's nasty! What're in these donuts?" Lil Arturo cried in horror as he spat out chunks of half-masticated donut onto the floor. Luna shrieked in disgust. "Whatever, I want something else for breakfast," Arturo grumbled.

"Forget breakfast, I lost my appetite," Luna groaned.

Snake walked over to the fridge to find something edible. His long face turned up into a frown.

"Guysss, I wanna make BLTssss but we have no mayonaissssse…" Snake pointed out as he stared into the chilly abyss.

"I like donuts!" Big Billy cried eagerly as he thundered towards the table. He picked up the box of disgusting donuts and dumped them down his gullet without a second thought.

"I think someone replaced all the cream in the donuts with mayonnaise," Luna said, putting two and two together.

"No, you _think_?" Ace asked sarcastically.

Meanwhile, at school, Angela traipsed merrily through the hallways of her school with a spoon in a jar of mayonnaise. Every so often she would spoon a heaping portion of the creamy contents into her mouth. She even did this as she passed by Christa and her friends.

"Eww," Christa shuddered.

"Seriously?" Destiny asked in disbelief.

"That is _so_ gross," Melissa added.

"You of all people would actually eat mayonnaise out of a jar," Christa said flatly.

"I hope you realize this isn't really mayonnaise," Angela informed her. "I extracted all the cream from my roommates' donuts and put it in this jar."

"Ewww, so you're eating donut filling?!" Melissa shrieked. "Like that's a whole lot better for you?"

"You're gonna get _so_ fat," Christa said vehemently.

"Oh well," Angela said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I'm so damn hyper I'll burn it off anyway. And even if I _do_ get fat, I can lose the weight anyway. You just can't fix ugly. Or bitchy. Or stupid, for that matter."

Angela skipped gleefully off to her next class. Nothing could pluck her from Cloud Nine. Not Christa and her royal court of skanks, not Gertrude the angry German dance instructor, not even realizing she barely passed her freshman year of high school by the skin of her teeth.

The day seemed to coast by like a bullet train. Back at the guest cottage that afternoon, Ace was about to fall asleep on the flame-painted sofa after getting his ass kicked by Lil Arturo on Mario Kart. On the coffee table was a squirt gun with a note next to it. Ace picked it up and lowered his shades a bit as he studied the letter carefully. He scratched his head in confusion.

He picked up the squirt gun. Snake happened to walk by and noticed Ace staring blankly at the note, trying to make sense of the words.

"What'ssss that?" Snake asked.

"I think Angie's tryin' to tell me somethin'," Ace said. "I think this is her handwritin'."

"Oooh! Lemme read itssss!" Snake volunteered. Ace bopped him on the head in annoyance and shoved the piece of paper in Snake's hands. When Snake recovered from the blow, he began, "Dearsss Ace, I'm ssssorry I couldn't be theressss today but at leassst I'll be home tonight. Meanwhile, heressss a ssssquirt gun ssso you don't get bored. Love, Angie. : I have one too. I'm giving you a ten sssssecond head sssstart."

"Wait a minute, what the hell…" Ace asked trying to wrap his head around what Snake just read him. A few seconds later, someone dashed through the front door and Ace was blasted in the gut with a jet stream of ice-cold water.

"I told you I was giving you a ten second head start," Angela reminded him with a giggle. "Catch me if you can!"

Angela bounded over chairs and raced all around the living room as Ace chased her with the squirt gun. Occasionally he'd hit her and her uniform would get soaked. Eventually, all the furniture got soaked from the squirt guns and so did the tile floor. Snake just watched the whole thing and wished he had a squirt gun too. Angela slipped on the tile and let out a squeal as she landed on the floor. Ace hovered over her shoulder and squirted her with his squirt gun until she was thoroughly soaked. Her hair and her clothes were dripping. The two of them laughed hysterically until a knock on the door to the guest cottage caused silence to follow.

"Oh shit," Angela whispered as she carefully stood up. "You better hide. I'll cover for us."

Snake and Ace both fled from sight into different rooms. Angela tried to shake some of the water from her curls as she opened the front door to see the sight of her mother. Penelope's face went from unfeeling and stoic to exasperated in a matter of moments.

"Angela Abigail Morbucks!" Penelope gasped. "What happened in here?! This room is _soaked_!"

"I'm sorry Mom," Angela said as she threw together an explanation out of thin air. "I told Luna I'd do the dishes for her and the washers on the faucet broke, so I asked Luna if she'd go to the hardware store and get new ones."

"Humph," Penelope snorted. "She'll have to do that. Meanwhile, I want you to get ready."

"Get ready?" Angela asked. "What for?"

"We're inviting the Yamamotos to join us for dinner tonight. They'll be here at six, so you've got two hours to get ready."

"Shit…" Angela muttered under her breath. She hoped more than anything she'd have free time to spend with Ace tonight, but that would just have to wait for now.

"What was that young lady?" Penelope asked sharply.

"Nothing, nothing," Angela quickly replied. "I can't wait to see James! I better go get ready."

"Indeed," Penelope said sternly as she turned and left the guest house, shutting the front door behind her signaling the start of all chaos.

"What the hell, Angie?" Ace demanded. "It's my birthday, and you're gonna go have dinner with that pretty boy? I told ya I didn't really care about you spending time with him no more, but why'd you have to deal with him on my birthday?"

"Ace, it's just so my parents don't get suspicious! I promise you we'll have the rest of the night together!" Angela defended. She took a deep breath as she looked beyond his shades and into dark eyes that pierced her soul. "I better go get ready." She disappeared into her room to pick out something to wear.

Two hours later, someone knocked on the door to the guesthouse. Big Billy bounded excitedly over to the front door.

"James here! James here!" Big Billy sang out in excitement as he threw the door open, ripping it off its hinges.

"Big Billy! What'd I say to you about answering the door?" Angela fumed as she ran a hairbrush through her tangled brown hair.

"Angie no worry," Big Billy sang happily as James stood in the threshold in awe of Big Billy's strength. "It's just James!"

The others stopped what they were doing and showed up to greet James.

"Did he just rip the door off its hinges?" James asked incredulously. He took a screw driver out of his pocket. "I can fix that." He went to work putting the front door in place as Ace rolled his eyes in annoyance. Angela elbowed him in the rib and then noticed a remote control hanging out of James's other pocket.

"What's that for?" Angela asked.

"What?" James asked as he finished twisting the last screw on the hinge into place. "Oh, you mean this?" He asked as he stood up and took the remote control out of his pocket. "This is a robot I'm working on for an upcoming battlebot competition."

"Nerd," Ace muttered under his breath in disgust. But James didn't hear him.

James fiddled with the joystick on the control panel. At that moment, a small, silver disc-shaped machine that was low to the ground zipped into the room.

"It looksssss like ssssssome kind of vacuum cleaner," Snake observed.

"That's because it started out that way," James admitted. "I took a bunch of the parts and added a smaller motor and a computer chip so that it moves around on my command using the control panel."

"It doesn't looking like it can be a very threatening battlebot," Luna observed.

"That's because that's not what it's for tonight," James explained. He handed Luna a small walkie-talkie-type device. "I've programmed this guy to just look like an ordinary battlebot when really it's got a recording system built right in, so you can overhear everything that goes on during dinner. I mostly programmed it to put a certain someone in this room at peace." He said, shooting Ace a look.

"Well, we better go over to the main house," Angela suggested, not looking forward to the awkwardness of dinner. She looked over at Ace and said reassuringly, "We'll only be gone a few hours."

Ace groaned in annoyance, still shooting Angela and James dirty looks while the pair made their exit, the vacuum-cleaner recorder robot following them.

Angela and James walked over to the main house together in silence, not breathing a word into the awkward stillness until they walked through the threshold of the main house.

"You're late," Penelope said sternly as James and Angela walked through the door. "Dinner is getting cold. It's rude to keep other people waiting you know. You know better."

"Penelope, dear, please, not while we have guests!" Sam insisted. He and Mr. Yamamoto disappeared into the dining room to discuss business.

"Angela, you look lovely tonight," complimented Mrs. Yamamoto. "That dress looks great on you."

"Wow," James murmured into Angela's ear. "She actually complimented someone. The apocalypse must be coming."

Angela stifled an impending giggle.

"How come you never tell _me_ I look lovely?" Whined James's little sister who looked to be no older than ten.

"You'll look nicer when you get older," Mrs. Yamamoto assured her before quietly adding, "I hope."

"Come on then. Dinner's ready," Penelope repeated. The two families headed into the dining room. James discreetly pushed a button on the remote that controlled the recording robot. It maneuvered along the carpet by itself. Everyone gathered around the dining room table that was piled high with very fancy foods.

"James, do you really need to have that thing on while we're having dinner?" Mrs. Yamamoto asked irately.

"I just wanted to leave it on for a little while to see if the battery runs as long as I think it will," James insisted.

"You're not going to have any time to build robots when you ship off to school in a month," Mr. Yamamoto reminded him. Angela looked over at James and noticed a look of disappointment on his face.

Back in the guest cottage, the gang gathered around the walkie-talkie Luna held in her hands, listening in on every conversation the two families were having.

"Man, this is boring," Ace murmured. "They ain't talking about anything except rich people stuff."

"They're having pot au feu, steak tartar, and escargot?" Luna murmured enviously. "I'm jealous! They should've invited _me_ to dinner!"

"Big Billy like dinner!" Big Billy shouted excitedly.

"Keep it down! We're trying to listen!" Lil Arturo urged.

"Big Billy like dinner!" Big Billy repeated.

"I thinksssss Billy'sssss hungry," Snake said.

"All right then, I'll make some stew, but keep me informed as to what's going on!" Luna urged.

"It probably ain't gonna be very interesting," Ace said, rolling his eyes.

About an hour later, the conversations dwindled, and dinner ended.

"Well, we better get home," Mrs. Yamamoto said, slowly rising from where she sat. "Maya has a French test tomorrow, and she needs to study, lest she get another A-," she added, shooting Maya a dirty look. Maya frowned in shame and disappointment.

"I'm going to bed," Angela announced.

"Let me walk you over to the guest cottage," Jimmy offered.

"No, son, you'll stay behind," Mr. Yamamoto insisted. "We have something to share with you."

Angela said goodnight to her parents, and walked back to the guest cottage, not sure what was going on, but a sickly feeling made itself at home in the pit of her stomach.

Carefully, Angela knocked on the door of the guest cottage. Luna let her in.

"You should've smuggled back some escargot," Luna said enviously.

"Can't you think of something else other than food?" Angela laughed. Her voice became serious very quickly. "They wouldn't let Jimmy walk me back over. What's going on?"

"Shhh! Listen!" Arturo shushed. "They're talking again!"

They gathered around the walkie-talkie listening to Angela's parents and James's parents talk.

"Thank you for having me over, Mr. and Mrs. Morbucks," James said graciously.

"You're very welcome," Penelope replied. "Angela really enjoys your company, and ever since you two began spending time together, she's really turned her behavior around. Her teachers only complain about her once a week now instead of five times!"

"That's…good I guess," James stammered.

"Mr. Morbucks, your daughter is quite an interesting young lady," Mr. Yamamoto began. "I'm sure she would make a fine wife for my son."

Everyone gathered around the walkie-talkie sat there with a look of surprise on their faces. Angela felt her stomach lurch and her heart drop.

"Excuse me?" James asked, completely dumbfounded.

"We realize you're both young, but how would you like it if you and Angela were to, say be engaged before you left for school?" Mrs. Yamamoto suggested. "Your father and I did the same thing when we were teenagers. Before he left for school, we got engaged, and all I had to do was wait for him to come back."

"Oh…" James murmured.

"We'll give you a little time to think about it, and if you decide it's what you want, we'll throw an engagement party before you leave for school," Sam offered.

An eerie layer of shock and disturbance filled the guest cottage, and would never be lifted.

"I'm getting _married_?!" Angela spat in shock.

"Oh fuck no." Ace fumed in a low, dangerous voice. "No fucking way."

"Look, I'm sorry Ace, I didn't mean for this to happen, I," Angela quickly began.

"Don't bother," Ace growled. "You planned this all along. You wanted to keep spending time with that pretty boy! You couldn'ta told me you didn't wanna see me anymore. Oh no, instead, you had to go and start seeing someone else behind my back! Well it ain't happening!"

"Ace, I didn't mean for this to happen! I only agreed to keep seeing James so Mom and Dad would stop setting me up with assholes!" Angela protested. "I had no clue this was what they were planning! How was I supposed to know?!"

"I don't wanna hear it," Ace growled.

"Just hear me out," Angela begged. The others watched intently, hearts breaking at the sight of watching their two friends fight. "We can figure out how to make it work, but you just have to…"

"Hell no," Ace murmured angrily. Angela had seen him mad before. But not like this. Normally, he'd punch a few walls (or Snake, if he happened to be nearby) when he got mad, and that was the end of it. But this was different. Ace became downright _cold_, completely shutting her away. By now, the others were watching and the jaws still hadn't come up from off the floor.

"I need a moment," Angela said, excusing herself and walking out the front door of the guest cottage where she made herself comfortable on the porch, sitting on the front step and staring up at the lonely moon. Her mind reeled in a million different directions.

So she was pretty much about to be sold to someone else. Lovely. Just lovely. She knew eventually she would've had to tell her parents that she didn't like James in _that_ way, but how was she supposed to know that day would come so soon? And what did that mean for her and Ace?

She still loved Ace. There was no doubt in her mind that she did. There never was. But how the hell was this going to work anymore? Maybe she _could_ just tell her parents that she didn't want to marry James. Maybe she could risk being disowned and just run away. It happened all the time in the movies, didn't it?

Maybe that's what she'd do. Now if only Ace would just _listen_ to her...

Her train of thought was interrupted when Arturo came out and sat next to her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. "Go back inside. What if one of my folks comes over here?"

"You look like you needed company," Arturo told her.

"Well, I guess what I need right now is an easy answer," Angela murmured. "I'm not even sure what's going on anymore, and Ace is being a total dick about all this."

"He's always a dick," Arturo said. Angela looked over at him and shot him an inquisitive look. "He gets all jealous whenever you hang out with James, but then he likes to make passes at random chicas we pass on the street."

Angela's heart dropped.

"Wait a moment, he does?" She asked.

"Yeah. He's always checking out other girls when you're not around," Arturo told her.

Rage should've swelled up inside of her. It was one thing for Ace to look at other girls. That part didn't bother her. It was entirely something else for him to be a complete hypocrite.

But rage didn't consume her. Instead, laughter did.

"Wow…" Angela howled. "Why am I not surprised?! What a fucking hypocrite!" She finally stopped laughing, and an awkward silence settled between the two of them.

"You know, if you were my chica, I wouldn't do that," Arturo told her.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Angela asked, staring at him inquisitively.

"Angie, I think I always liked you," Arturo admitted. "But I couldn't do anything about it, because I knew that would've pissed off Ace."

"That's nice of you, but honestly, I don't see you that way. I just see you as a friend," Angela told him. "You're more like the brother I never had."

"Besame," Arturo said. "Besame, mi vida."

"Wait, what? I don't know what that means," Angela said, getting obviously uncomfortable. "This is really weird."

"Besame," he repeated, throwing himself at Angela, attempting to kiss her. He knocked her on her back, and Angela was too caught-off guard to do anything about it. Their lips met and Angela's eyes widened in shock and disgust. She tried to pull him off of her when the front door flew open.

A puny guy like Arturo trying to make out with Angela was actually a very hilarious sight to see. But Ace wasn't laughing at all.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, MOTHERFUCKERS?!"

**SuperSailorCharon: **Yes, that last line was totally me paying homage to "My Immortal" by Tara Gilespie.


	18. What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?

**SuperSailorCharon: Le Gasp! This story just got a whole lot more interesting! Anyway, I don't own anyone except for Angela, James, Luna, etc. Now let's see what happens next! **

"How the fuck could you do this behind my back?" Ace asked. He stared down Angela and Arturo furiously and realized that if he had a gun right now, they'd both be dead on the floor.

"Wait! It's not what you think!" Angela quickly explained. "Hear me out!"

"I'm sorry Ace," Arturo apologized, now he was shaking in his shoes. If he didn't come up with a good excuse fast, he was gonna get his ass kicked. "She was having an asthma attack!"

"You expect me to believe _that_?" Ace asked. "I'm not that stupid, Arturo."

"No, you're not," Angela assured him. She stood up and brushed herself off before she and Arturo followed Ace back into the house. "Arturo tried to make a move on me, but I told him I wasn't into him like that."

"Fuck, I don't know what to believe anymore," Ace fumed.

"Well fine!" Angela shouted back at him. "If you can't trust me, then you can get lost! I don't know what to do to get you to believe me, but clearly it's not worth it anymore! Get out! You've overstayed your welcome!"

Grubber's face curled up into a frown and Big Billy's one eye began to water.

"Big Billy don't wanna go home!" Big Billy wailed.

"Well, we gotta go Billy. We ain't hanging out here with Angie no more. She ain't one of us," he murmured. Grubber blew a very sad raspberry in response.

"Wait, excuse moi?" Luna asked.

"It's over with me and Ace," Angela announced. "I'm done not being trusted. It's not worth it anymore."

"I guesssss thisssss meansss we can't sssseee each othersssss anymore," Snake said sadly. Luna took his hands and look him sorrowfully in the eyes.

"Oh for fuck's sake, I'm the one having the break-up here! Not you guys!" Angela groaned. "Whatever. Just, everyone get out!"

"Gladly," Ace said coldly.

"And take the car with you!" Angela shouted. "I'll just tell my dad it's in the shop if he asks any questions."

Snake and Grubber sadly trudged out the door following their leader. Arturo wore an expression of shame on his face while Big Billy continued to wail all the way out the door.

The gang piled into the car, this time without their female accomplice, and drove away into the night.

"Are you all right?" Luna asked.

"I'm fine," Angela murmured. "Just fine…"

The world around her spun uncontrollably. Her heart dropped and her stomach lurched and thrust uncomfortably. She felt like she wanted to cry, but no tears would come. Her heart beat faster and faster as she threw the door open to her room and then slammed it shut.

Opening her closet, she plucked out the provocative red slip she was going to wear tonight when she had a moment alone with Ace. She took out the outfit she wore when she was living with Ace and the rest of the gang before fumbling around in the top drawer of her nightstand for a pair of scissors. With a few swift motions, the outfits were ripped to shreds. Angela grabbed the fragments of fabric and tossed them into the trash. The pearls that Ace gave her soon joined them in the wastebasket.

Angela opened the door to her bedroom and called out to Luna.

"Hey Luna! You wanna come empty my trash can?" She asked. "Trash day is tomorrow!"

"Oui," Luna replied solemnly. She took the wastebasket and upon seeing its contents, her face fell. But she said nothing as she took out the trash.

Angela shut the door to her bedroom. She threw herself onto the bed where she allowed herself to become a crumpled pile of tears.

"Poor mademoiselle," Luna murmured out loud as she opened the front door and took the wastebasket out to the big trash can near the curb.

Meanwhile, the gang drove back to Townsville in utter silence. "Angie" by The Rolling Stones played on the radio, and Ace immediately changed the station.

When they got back to the shack at the dump, Arturo finally spoke up.

"Ace, I'm sorry," he said. "I just got caught up in the moment was all, and besides, you treat Angie like shit, and…" he was cut off by Ace picking him up and chucking him against the room.

"You took something that didn't belong to you," Ace reminded him.

"It's not my fault you acted like a complete asshole!" Arturo protested.

"He doessss hasss a point, Ace," Snake chimed in. "You kinda weren't fair to Angie."

Snake found himself socked in the face.

"Shut the fuck up, Snake, no one asked you," Ace snapped.

"She wassss the only perssson who ever loved youssss and you ruined itssss," Snake reminded him. He didn't know why he found himself standing up to Ace all of the sudden. Maybe being in love himself had made him a little more courageous.

"I said no one asked you!" Ace repeated, smacking Snake again.

For the first time since they'd known each other, Snake struck back and an all-out brawl ensued.

"Big Billy wanna fight, too!" Big Billy said gleefully, body-slamming the other members of the gang for no reason whatsoever.

The front door broke down, and the gang finally stopped fighting. In the doorway were The Powerpuff Girls. They were in their pajamas, and Bubbles carried Octi in her arms.

"Can you guys keep it down?" Buttercup demanded irately, rubbing the sleep out of her green eyes. "We can hear you fighting all the way from our house!"

"Yeah! We were getting used to having peace and quiet without you guys around!" Blossom interjected.

"We're sorry!" Big Billy said ruefully. "We'll try to fight quieter!"

"You better or there'll be trouble!" Blossom threatened. With that, the girls took off.

There's a funny thing about guys…they can beat the shit out of each other and afterwards, not remember why they were mad to begin with. The next morning, all was forgotten between Ace and Arturo as the gang went out to kick cans and scrounging for quarters down in the ally.

But no matter how hard Ace tried, he couldn't get Angie off his mind.

Maybe it was for the best. After all, every time he let someone get close to him, they only ended up letting him down. He still couldn't forget how Seduca completely screwed him and the gang over.

_Man, women really suck_, Ace thought to himself.

"Ace? Hey Ace?" Snake repeated, trying to get his friend's attention.

"What?" Ace asked. He didn't realize he'd been zoning out for the last five minutes.

"Hey Ace, we finally gotsss enough quarterssss!" Snake said.

Back in Cityville, Angela heard a knock on her door. She rose out of bed to answer it to see her parents. A wave of dread cascaded her. They actually looked happy for once! And she knew exactly why…

"Honey, we have some good news for you," Sam began. He and his wife stepped in. They motioned for Angela to sit down on the sofa.

"I think I know what you're going to say, but go ahead," Angela invited.

Sam and Penelope just glanced at each other.

"Well," Penelope began, "after last night, we asked James and his parents how they'd feel if you and James got engaged before James went off to Connecticut for school at the end of the summer. We could have the engagement party before he left, and when he came back, the two of you could get married."

"I had a feeling," Angela murmured, mustering every ounce of false excitement she could summon from within her.

"Well, and we also figured that since your behavior has been improving, we thought that we'd let Luna take you to France next weekend. You could stay in Paris for a few weeks."

Angela's eyes widened. She'd always wanted to go to France. But today, the enthusiasm and excitement just wasn't there.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked. "You've always wanted to see Paris!"

"Oh, nothing, I'm just still a little tired is all," Angela lied.

"It's settled! You and Luna will be going to France!" Penelope said excitedly. "While you're away, we'll starting making the plans for the engagement party. Oh, my little girl's growing up so fast!"

A wave of dread washed over Angela upon hearing those words.


	19. Ah, Worldwide Alamode!

**SuperSailorCharon: Mmmkay! This is the last chapter before I go to bed! So this chapter should be way less sad than the last couple chapters. Up next! Angela, Luna, and a special guest go to Paris! As I write this, I am actually planning a trip to France with an old friend of mine from school. I do not own the Powerpuff Girls or Ah, Worldwide Alamode from the **_**Hetalia **_**soundtrack (although I highly recommend listening to that song while you read this chapter). Enjoy!**

"I can't believe it! I'm _home!_" Luna cried out in joy as the limo pulled out of the parking lot of the air port. "Oh! I hope Paris hasn't changed _too_ much in the last two months!"

"Thank you for letting me go with you guys," Rachel said. Her glasses were replaced with contacts, and her long, dirty-blonde hair was cut to just below her shoulders.

Originally, Rachel wasn't supposed to visit Luna in Paris until Luna's time in the United States was over. But when Angela found out she was going to Paris, she insisted on taking Rachel along.

"A _commoner_? You want to take a _commoner _with you?" Penelope spat. She sighed before adding, "I suppose it wouldn't be _too _terrible."

From there, Angela, Luna, and Rachel were booked a first-class flight to Paris where they would be spending the next several weeks in the City of Lights and living it up in a five-star hotel.

"Oh! There is so much I want to show you!" Luna cried excitedly. "Where should we go first? The Eifel Tower, perhaps? Or maybe we can see the Arc De Triumph! Oh! And then there is also The Louvre, but the line for that is usually several hours long!"

"I wanna try some good French food!" Rachel said.

"It's settled!" Luna agreed. "First we eat lunch, and then we see the sights!"

After an authentic lunch at an upscale bistro, the three girls spent the rest afternoon taking a stroll through the streets of Paris.

During the entire trip, Angela didn't feel so depressed. If anything, she couldn't help but smile at all the wonderful sights of France. Perhaps a change of scenery was all she needed to forget about Ace.

That is, until one afternoon at the Eiffel Tower, Luna began snapping ridiculous amounts of pictures.

"Whoa, what's with all the pictures?" Rachel asked. "You live here! Why do you need so many?"

"It's for Snake," Luna insisted. "The next time I visit him, I want to be able to show him all the wonderful things about where I live."

Upon hearing those words, Angela's face fell. Luna took note.

"What is the matter?" Luna asked.

"Oh, I was just thinking about Ace was all," Angela felt. The pain and memories of him still hadn't quite faded away. And she wondered if they ever would.

"That's harsh," Rachel said. The night before, Angela told her the story about how she and Ace were together, but now things were very different, especially since she was to be engaged to the heir of Cityville Motors at the end of the summer. "It's been a while since I've had a boyfriend," Rachel sighed.

"Why don't we all talk over some coffee and pastries?" Luna suggested.

The three girls eventually sat down at a table outside of a café that was situated right next to the Eifel Tower.

"When I was your age," Luna began, looking Angela in the eyes, "I fell in love. He broke my heart because he cheated on me with a Japanese exchange student. I thought I would never get over it."

"Does it ever stop hurting?" Angela asked. Her tone was flat, but her eyes emitted so much sorrow. They were windows to wounds that hadn't healed yet.

"It will heal in time," Luna told her.

"It just sucks a whole lot while you're waiting," Rachel added. "I remember _my _first breakup."

"Did you two ever, well, you know?" Luna asked, ignoring Rachel. She lowered her voice before adding, "Make love?"

"Mhmm," Angela admitted as she took another sip of her coffee. "And honestly, I'm starting to regret it. I wonder what the hell I was thinking. But I'm just glad my mother never found out."

"You just described _my_ first time," Rachel laughed. "Except your first time was just with a green dude while mine was with a guy who worked as a dancing taco."

The three girls burst out in laughter, and Angela felt a weird sense of belonging that she hadn't felt since she first spent time with the Gangrene Gang. Was she _actually_ having girl talk, like the annoying prissy bitches she went to school with?

"Why can't girls just date other girls?" Angela asked. "I could totally go for that." That wasn't really true. It was her first time just _socializing_ with two other girls without losing her mind, so she couldn't imagine actually dating a girl.

"They do. It's called being a lesbian," Rachel told her.

"Oh," Angela said sheepishly. "They really _don't_ teach us anything where I go to school."

"You know, for someone so rich, you sure are sheltered," Rachel pointed out bluntly.

"Some days I feel that way too," Angela admitted. "I think that's probably why I ran away from home last fall."

"Well," Rachel said, raising and lowering her shoulders, "you might be sheltered, but you're a lot smarter than I ever was when I was fifteen."

"You're growing up just fine," Luna said approvingly.

"Hey, what should we do next, Luna?" Rachel asked excitedly.

"How about a stroll along the Champs Elysees?" Luna suggested. "We can find lovely outfits to wear to Angela's party in one of the shops! And perhaps after that, we can take pictures in front of the Arc De Triumph."

"I swear, Angie," Rachel said, "you're the luckiest girl in the world."

"I don't see what's so lucky about getting engaged at fifteen, but okay!" Angela said sarcastically.

"Okay, maybe that's not so great, but look who you're engaged to!" Rachel reminded her. "James is gorgeous! And it's because of him that I'll be able to go visit Luna again next year. I'm telling you, he's a real catch"

"Fine then. Why don't you marry him?" Angela asked dryly.

"I dunno about that, but I would kill to fill your shoes," Rachel admitted.

"Wait, what are you saying?" Angela asked incredulously. Luna looked over at Rachel with raised eyebrows.

"Are you saying you like James?" Luna asked.

"Yeah," Rachel admitted. "But he'd never notice a girl like me. I mean he's the heir to some pretty powerful people. And I'm just a girl trying to pay my way through college so I can become a social worker. Besides, he's gonna be a married man in a couple of years, so it'll never happen."

"It's amazing what people find out in The City of Lights," Luna sighed wistfully. "Now let's go shopping!"

Angela reluctantly followed them, wishing she didn't just get another reminder of why her engagement to James sucked so hard.


	20. Master Plan

**SuperSailorCharon: Sorry if it seems like I'm rushing in an attempt to finish this story. But I've got about a billion other projects going on (I'm currently working on a Hetalia reader-insert featuring France that I'll have published on another site and then my brother and I are working on starting up an entertainment blog), but here is the next chapter! **

It was a hot August day. Two months had gone by since Angela and Ace had stopped speaking, but Luna still found a way to visit Snake, even if it meant sneaking out of the house once in a while, taking the train into Townsville, and meeting up with him at the park. After doing this a few times, Luna knew exactly why Angela used to get such a rush out of sneaking out to meet up with the gang.

It was the day before Angela and James's engagement party, and Luna had been given the day off since Penelope wanted to take Angela out for a manicure and pedicure. This left Luna with plenty of time to just disappear from Soaring Swine Acres.

Hurrying down the street towards the train station, Luna was shocked when she happened to pass by James on the street. Although he was wearing shades, Luna could recognize that face anywhere.

"James! What are you doing here?" Luna asked. "Should you not be getting ready for tomorrow?"

"Everyone keeps talking about the engagement party, so I'm just avoiding it for now," James admitted. "I'm kind of putting everything off as long as I can."

"I see," Luna said sympathetically.

"It's not that I don't like Angela. I definitely do," James added with a grin, "but honestly, I'm too young to get engaged to anyone. I kinda just want to do my own thing for a little while, and if I meet the right girl in the process, then that's great." He looked at Luna for a moment and asked, "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I was on my way to the train station to go to Townsville so I can visit with Snake. I never got a chance to show him the pictures that I took in Paris," Luna told him. "I better hurry if I'm going to make it on time."

She was about to walk away when James called after her.

"Wait! Let me go with you!" He insisted.

Luna stopped dead in her tracks and looked at James as though he lost his mind.

"Perdon?" She asked incredulously.

"Look, I know it's partially my fault that Angie and Ace aren't together anymore. There's not a whole lot I can do at this point, but Ace deserves to at least know that I'm sorry."

"Well," Luna sighed, "I guess it might not be so terrible, but I have no idea if that will do you any good."

"I'm willing to at least try and make things right," James asserted, never once backing down.

Luna looked at James with wide eyes. She wished this whole situation had a happy ending, but at this point, that just seemed impossible.

"All right, but I am not responsible if things don't end well for you," Luna said, shrugging her shoulders. "Come on. We will miss the train if we do not hurry."

James and Luna scrambled to board the train with only moments to spare before it departed from the platform, speeding into Townsville.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Luna asked. "It's not too late to get off at the next stop and take the train back to Cityville."

"I know what I'm doing," James reassured her.

A few hours later, Luna and James found themselves at the Townsville dump. Luna gulped hard and knocked on the door of the shack, not sure what to expect with James here with her.

"Snake, it's Luna," Luna called. "Are you ready to go?"

Snake opened the door and let Luna in where the other members of the gang were all playing poker. James followed her inside the shack, and all of the members of the gang had expressions of shock on their faces. Ace threw down his hand of cards in disgust while Grubber ignored him and proceeded to devour his earnings, as usual.

"What the hell is he doin' here for?" Ace asked.

"Look, I just wanted to say…" James began before Ace cut him off.

"I don't wanna hear it, Pretty Boy," Ace spat.

"Will you let me finish?" James asked impatiently.

"Hell no, you're the reason everything's so fucked up right now!" Ace snapped. He approached James and made a swing at him. James ducked and escaped the blow unscathed.

"I told you coming here was a bad idea," Luna reminded him.

"If you just give me a minute to explain," James insisted. Ace kept making swings at him, and every time, James dodged them effortlessly, even going so far as to sock Ace in the jaw. Ace was knocked backwards from the blow.

"Whoa," Ace murmured in shock, literally not knowing what hit him. He slowly scrambled to his feet, ignoring his aching face and feeling really embarrassed that he just got his ass kicked by a rich boy.

"Damn Ace! Jamessss sure kicked your," Snake pointed out before he was clocked in the chin.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that," James said, lowering his voice to a dull, dangerous pitch that made the others shake in their shoes. Luna just stood there and watched dumbfounded. This was a side that she had never seen before of the mild-mannered, nerdy young man. "If you think you can really take me, I'd love to see it. I've been doing karate since I was six. Now you can let me finish what I was gonna say, or I can continue to kick your ass. Seeing as I don't believe in fighting unless it's for self-defense, I really don't want to do that last one. It's your choice."

Seeing no other way out, Ace finally said, "What the hell do you want, Pretty Boy?"

"I just came to say I was sorry," James explained. "I feel really bad that Angie and you aren't together anymore, and I know it's partially my fault."

"Actually, it's mine too!" Arturo chimed in before Ace bopped him on the head.

"Yeah?" Ace snorted. "Tell me something I don't already know, or get the hell out of here, because yer wastin' my time."

"Just know that I'm not thrilled about the idea of marrying Angie," James continued. "I do like her, but not like that, so it's not like I asked for this to happen. But know that I will do whatever I can to make sure she's happy and taken care of for the rest of her life. If I had a way to stop the engagement party tomorrow, I would."

Ace finally let his guard down for a moment, enough so to ask, "Does she ever talk about me, anymore?"

Suddenly, Luna chimed in.

"I think I know a way for you to find out," Luna said with a devious smirk on her face.

Everyone stared at Luna, waiting to see what the French woman was scheming now.

"Here's what we do," she said, motioning for everyone to huddle around her. The gang and James crowded around. She whispered a few things to them.

"That might actually work," James said. "It sounds risky, but at this point, I want to try anything."

"Luna! Yer a…what's that word you use for 'genius' again?" Ace asked.

"Ace, it's time I told you the truth," Luna sighed. "_Caca Boudin _means 'poop head'. Every three-year old in France knows what it means."

What Luna just said seemed to fall on deaf ears, because the gang was more interested in the epic plan that Luna just came up with.

"We'll need a few gallons of beige-colored paint, and you boys had better be ready to learn a few things about manners and becoming proper gentlemen," Luna said.

"We only have until tomorrow until the engagement party," James reminded her. "How are we going to pull this off?"

"You're a high-class gentleman," Luna told him. "You were born rich. I am sure you can take this motley crew and turn them into a few fine young monsieurs."

James rolled his eyes and looked at the gang of green-skinned guys with greasy hair, poor posture, and a clear and present demonstration of poor hygiene.

"It's for mine and Angie's freedom," he reminded himself.

**SuperSailorCharon: Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of Long Live the Queen! **


End file.
